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'♦"•"iTtt^iii /'-' • ' 












c3Bi-^ts;^::::. 




'''*'***'^/»^"*' •" ' 




:r'.^^;:;'::.*;"t.r»'. 




-r.::2rx:':t:'- -/:;;• 




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Li 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

l^ ^i \\\ 

Chap... Copyright No.. 



- — A^?f 



Shelfi^y 

UNiTED STATES OF AMERICA. 



, V 



ALLYN AND BACON'S COLLEGE LATIN SERIES 

under'the general editorship of 
CHARLES E. BENNETT and JOHN C ROLFE 



HANDBOOK 



LATIN INSCRIPTIONS 



ILLUSTRATING THE HISTORY OF 
THE LANGUAGE 



/ 



BT 



W. M. LINDSAY, M.A. 

FELLOW OF JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD 




ALLYN AND BACON 

1897 



TWO GOPiES RECEIVED 



-^^ 



u.^^^ 



^■i 



^-^^ 



3479 



Copyright, 1897, by 
ALLYN AND BACON. 



/^ 



*<s 



KoriwootJ i^ress 

J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



PREFACE. 



While writing my Short Historical Latin Grammar, 
I often wished that there was a suitable collection of 
specimens of Latin, chronologically arranged, to which 
the student might •.* b^ referred. The proposal of 
Messrs. Allyn and Bacon, that a Handbook of Latin 
Inscriptions illustrative of the history of the language 
should be compiled for their educational series, was 
therefore very welcome. From merely turning over 
the pages of a book of this kind one will sometimes 
learn more than from the most elaborate array of rules, 
just as the successive pictures of a panorama are often 
more instructive than the showman's lecture. 

In a few cases, where it seemed advisable, documents 
which cannot strictly be called ' Inscriptions ' have been 
included (Nos. 4, 65, 67, 78, 83, 84). The expression of 
long i by i with an apex, instead of by the tall form of 
the letter, in Chap. III., is a concession to typographical 
convenience. 

W. M. LINDSAY. 

Oxford, England, August, 1897. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. PAGE 

I. The Eakliest Period and the Beginning of Lit- 
erature 1 

11. The Period of the Kepublican Literature . . 47 

III. The Age of Cicero and the Early Empire. 

Classical Latin 94 

TV. Imperial and Late Latin 114 

Index 131 

V 



HANDBOOK 

OF 

LATIN mSCEIPTIONS. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE EARLIEST PERIOD AND THE BEGINNING OP 
LITERATURE. 

1. Latin belongs to the same family of languages as 
Greek, and the farther back we can trace the Latin 
speech, the more we find it resembling the Greek forms 
and inflexions. Bnt there was one thing which, century 
by century, altered more and more the appearance of 
Latin words, and that was the Latin accent. The Latin 
accent was, like ours, an accent of stress. The accented 
syllable was uttered so strongly as to spoil the clear 
utterance of the following syllables ; and just as in our 
own language the noun ^minute,' derived from Latin 
minutum, has come to' be pronounced ' minit ' instead of 
' minute,' so too in Latin a word like genos came to be 
pronounced indistinctly, incorrectly, irrationally, as genus. 
The cause of the change is the same in the Latin as in 
the English word. We use most of the breath at our 
disposal in uttering the first syllable of the word ' minute,' 

1 



2 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

and leave the following syllable without a chance of 
being properly pronounced. Precisely in the same way 
the Eoman put the strength of his voice into the utter- 
ance of the first syllable of genos, with the result that 
the second syllable was not given its full, proper sound 
of -7108, but was hurried over in such a fashion that the 
sound that reached the ear was rather -mis than -nos. 
But there is this difference between the Latin language 
and our own. Though we have long since abandoned 
the correct pronunciation ' minute' and have universally 
adopted the careless utterance ^minit/ we still keep the 
old spelling. A Eoman, however, spelled as he pro- 
nounced; so that when he became conscious that the 
way in which he pronounced genos was really with the 
sound of u not of o in the second syllable, he gave up 
the old spelling genos and adopted a new spelling, genus. 
That is what is meant by saying that Eoman spelling 
was phonetic, while ours is traditional. 

2. Of the alterations undergone by Latin words and in- 
flexions from one century to another, the most noticeable 
were the changes in unaccented vowels, such as the vowel 
of the second syllable of genos, Class. Lat. genus. If we 
remove these alterations and restore the words to their 
proper vocalism, the affinity of Latin with Greek is 
much more easy to perceive. The older form of genus, 
namely genos, is exactly identical with the corresponding 
Greek word yeVos, if we pronounce the Latin word as the 
Eomans pronounced it, with ' hard ' g. Again, the Latin 
Second Declension looks as if it were different from the 
Greek; for the typical Latin ending is -us, while the 



The Earliest Period, 3 

Greek is -os. But here, too, it is merely the Latin 
weakening of unaccented vowels that has effaced the 
resemblance. Before the Latin stress-accent on the first 
syllable had fully exerted its weakening influence on 
the second, a word like dolus was pronounced and spelled 
dolos, with the same ending -os as Greek 80X09 or any 
other noun of the Second Declension. Thus the farther 
back we go in the history of the Latin language, the 
more we find its forms resembling the Greek vocalism ; 
and in studying Latin forms we must always bear in 
mind that the great influence at work in changing their 
appearance was the Latin accentuation. 

3. What, then, were the rules of Latin accentuation, 
and at what periods in the history of Eome did it bring 
about these alterations in the vowels of unaccented syl- 
lables ? 

At some very early time, it is impossible to say pre- 
cisely when, every Latin word was accented on the 
first syllable. The Perfect of fallo, for example, had 
the accent on the syllable fe-, and that is why the 
second syllable whose proper pronunciation was -fall- 
(with an a) came, in time, to be pronounced and spelled 
'fell' (with an e). We, with an accent of much the same 
type as the Eoman, can easily realize how fefalli passed 
gradually into fefelli; for in our own pronunciation of 
words like ^prevalent' we see the same weakening, 
hurrying over, or slurring of the unaccented syllable. 
Similarly, the old name Numasio- became Numesio-, and 
in time (see § 6) Numerio-, 

At what time it was that this practice arose of throw- 



4 Handlooh of Latin Inscriptions. 

ing the weight of the voice on the first syllable of each 
and every Latin word we cannot tell, nor yet at what 
precise period the new fashion came in of accenting the 
antepenultimate syllable where the penult was short and 
the penult itself where it was long. The new fashion is 
the rule of Classical Latin; e.g. dedecoriSy Gen. of dedecus, 
is accented on the antepaenultima because the paenultima 
is a short syllable, while decoris, Gen. of decor, having a 
long penult, is accented on the penult. We may guess 
that the change — a gradual, not a sudden, one — took 
place about 350-250 e.g., and that words like Numerius, 
that is to say, words of four syllables with the first three 
short, were still later in succumbing to the new tendency. 
The accent probably persisted on the first syllable of 
such words (cf . our ' capitalist ') till the beginning of the 
first century e.g. But we know that the ^ Older Law of 
Accentuation,' as it is called, was long enough in prac- 
tice to leave its mark, where possible, on the second 
syllable of each and every word of the language. It is 
the syllable immediately following the accented syllable 
which in a language with stress-accentuation is always 
the chief sufferer. The old Latin accent being, as we 
have seen, on the first syllable of each word, it was the 
second syllable of the word which lay most exposed to 
its masterful influence. The only kind of second sylla- 
bles which resisted that influence successfully were 
syllables which had a long simple vowel. Decedo, for 
example, preserved its second syllable unimpaired, but 
de-caido became deceido, then decido; and de-cddo became 
decedOf then decido. Sometimes the short vowel was 



The Earliest Period. 6 

driveii out of its place altogether; re-peperi became 
repperi, and re-tetuU, rettuli. 

The effect of this ^ Old Law of Accentuation ' on the 
language was enormous. Every word which had a short 
second syllable had that syllable effaced by Syncope or 
else altered by Yowel-weakening, an a becoming an e 
(later i, see below). Every word which had a diphthong 
in the second syllable had that diphthong altered; ai 
to ei (later written and pronounced I), au (through ei6?) 
to ou (later written and pronounced u), 

4. The adoption of the new law of accentuation, the 
^Paenultima Law/ as it is called, did not arrest the 
process of Vowel-weakening. In the course of the third 
century B.C. we see e reduced to i ; concedo (earlier con- 
cado) becomes concido; aget, 3d Sg. Pres. Ind., becomes 
agU. 0, when unaccented, sinks to u', genos becomes 
genus. The precise rules of Vowel-weakening and Syn- 
cope cannot be given here. They may be learned from 
historical grammars such as my Historical Latin Gh^am- 
mar, ch. ii. §§12 sqq., Bennett, Appendix, §§ 71 sqq. 

5. In the first part of the period illustrated in this sec- 
tion, we must think of the language as dominated by the 
' Older Law of Accentuation,^ with an accent of stress 
on all first syllables, an accent which gradually weak- 
ened or effaced the vowel of the second syllable. And 
not merely the second syllable, but the final syllable too 
suffered under the overpowering influence of the stress- 
accentuation of the beginning of the word. Ai in a final 
syllable became in time ei (Class. Lat. i), and oi suffered 
the same change. Thus the i of the Xom. Plur. of the 



6 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions, 

Second Declension, which was pronounced ei up to about 
150 B.C. and was written ei even later, was originally oi. 
The Dat. Abl. Plur. of the same Declension ended origi- 
nally in -ois, which passed by the usual Vowel-weaken- 
ing to -eis, Class. Lat. -is. The -a^ of the Dat. Sg. of 
the Third Declension became -ei, Class. Lat. 4, and so 
on. Our oldest inscription (No. 1) belongs to a time 
when this Vowel-weakening had not so far developed as 
to be recognized in the spelling : thus we have Numasio-, 
not Numesio-; fefaked^ not fef eked. 

6. We cannot assign a date to the earliest examples of 
Vowel-weakening. But another phonetic change, which 
effected almost as great an alteration in the appearance 
of Latin words, we can date with some probability. 
Between vowels an s became 7' in Latin, a process called 
' Ehotacism,' in the course of the fourth century e.g., just 
as in Greek an s in the same position became at first 7i, 
then was dropped. If we eliminate these changes from 
the Latin and Greek case-forms of a word like genos, 
yevos, we see how similar is the early declension in the 
two languages : — 

Singular : 

Norn, genos (yhos) which became ^enws (7^^'os), 

Gen. (1) geneses " '' generis^ 

(2) genesos (yivecros) ^^ '' p^eTients, an occasional form 

(yiveos, then yevovs), 

Dat. genesai *' " ^enerei (Class. Lat. ^e^im), 

Loc. genesi (yeveo-L) " *' genere (yiveX, then yheC), 

in Latin with Ablative 
use, in Greek with Dative. 



The Earliest Period. 7 

Plural : 

Nom. genesa (yhea-a) which became genera (yhea^ then y^prj)^ 
Gen. genesom (yeviauv) '* '* generom, then generum 

(yeviuv^ then yevQv), 

and so on. 

Our two oldest Latin inscriptions (Nos. 1 and 2) belong 
to a time when this change of intervocalic s to r had not 
yet been effected. Thus we have Nitmasio- for Class. 
Lat. Numerio-, Toitesia- not -eria-. 

7. Another characteristic of this early period is that 
the diphthongs still remained intact. For the Latin 
diphthongs, even when in the accented syllable, came 
in course of time to have their true pronunciation modi- 
fied. The true, original pronunciation gave the diph- 
thong the combined sound of its separate elements. Oi 
was pronounced with the sound of o immediately fol- 
lowed by the sound of i ; ai with the sound of a immedi- 
ately followed by the sound of i. But in time the 
neighbourhood of i affected the o, and the o came to be 
pronounced like German o; then the i sunk to e, and 
this oe, written oe, came finally to be uttered as if it 
were the simple vowel u. The root of the word Toitesia- 
is apparently the same word with which we are familiar 
in Classical Latin under the form tutus. Similarly the a 
of ai became a under the influence of the neighbouring i ; 
then the i sunk to e, and what was originally ai came to 
be pronounced ae and written ae; while the last stage 
of all, the descent into the simple vowel-sound e, was 
reserved for the Post-classical period. 

This, then, constitutes an unfamiliar feature of the 



8 ITandbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

older language, the retention of the diphthongs in their 
original form, ai, oi, ou, and so on. Cf. my Historical 
Grammar, ch. x. § 11, Bennett, App., §§80 sqq. 

8. With the forms of the letters in which the language 
was written at this early epoch we need not much con- 
cern ourselves, for the object of our study is the history 
of the language itself, and not the history of its writing. 
But it may be mentioned that the Eomans took their 
alphabet bodily from the Greek colonists who were their 
neighbours, and adopted the habit of writing in the first 
instance for the purpose of trading with them. The 
early Latin alphabet is thus nothing but the Greek 
alphabet; and though on Greek soil these early forms 
of letters developed in one direction and on Latin soil 
in another, the Greek and Latin alphabets with which we 
are familiar still shew enough resemblance to convince 
us of their original identity. The Komans retained Q, 
the Greek Koppa, a letter which went out of use in the 
Attic alphabet, but they dropped letters like Theta and 
Phi, which had no sounds in the Latin pronunciation to 
correspond to them. To express the peculiarly Eoman 
sound / they used at first the Greek combination of the 
Digamma, the sign of our sound of w, with the sign for 
our sound of h. These two signs in the old Greek alpha- 
bet were F and H, and the combination FH expressed a 
sound occasionally found in early Greek words which 
came near the early Eoman sound of /. Thus in our 
earliest Latin inscription the ancient Perfect (3d Sg.) 
of facia, viz. fefdkeid is written FHEFHAKED, with the 
/-sound expressed by the double sign FH. The incon- 



The Earliest Period. 9 

venience of having a double symbol for a single sound 
led to the dropping of the second element, so that F 
became the Latin letter to express the sound /. The E 
in the last syllable of FHEFHAKED probably expresses 
the sound of the diphthong ei, for in the early Greek 
alphabet the letter E stood for what would in the Attic 
Greek of Demosthenes' time be written (1) e, (2) -q, (3) €t. 

The K of FHEFHAKED is another feature of early 
Latin writing. The Greek Kappa expressed the sound in 
Greek that corresponded to the Latin ' unvoiced ' guttural, 
and was at first always used in this function. But the 
Greeks pronounced their A:-sound in a way that seemed to 
a Roman ear as much like a ^-sound as a Zc-sound ; and so 
a Greek word like Kv^€pvC) was written by the Romans in 
their own characters with a g, guberno. The result of this 
want of clear distinction between the k- and the p'-sound 
in Greek pronunciation was that the Eomans used the 
letter Gamma, written C or < in the early Greek alpha- 
bet, as often for a A;-sound as for a ^- sound, and in course 
of time came to drop almost entirely the symbol K, using 
C to express both the Zc-sound and the ^-sound. When 
at last the necessity for distinguishing these sounds 
forced itself upon them, instead of reverting to the old 
usage of K for the ^^-sound and C for the ^-sound, they 
invented a new symbol for the g'-sound by adding a stroke 
to the C. That is the origin of the Eoman letter G. See 
my Historical Grammar, ch. i. § 5, Bennett, App., §§ 1, 3. 

In the Dvenos Inscription (No. 2) the g^-sound of virgo 
and the Z[:-sound of cosmis are written with the same 
letter C or <, while the S:-sound of pakari is expressed 



10 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

by K ; so that this inscription gives us a good example 
of the early indiscriminate use of these letters. We 
must not/ however, suppose that virgo was pronounced 
with the c- or Zc-sound. Though written -CO it was pro- 
nounced -GO, just as the names Gains and Gnaeus in 
Classical Latin were in abbreviations written in the old- 
fashioned style G., Cn., though they were never pro- 
nounced with any but the g^-sound. 

9. Of the forms of Declension and Conjugation which 
may have prevailed in this earliest period, we can say 
little. It is a common case in the history of a language, 
that its early stages are marked by an abundance of 
forms of which, in later stages, only ^ the fittest ' survive. 
How many and how various modes of declining Nouns 
and Pronouns and of conjugating Verbs may have sunk 
in the ' struggle for existence ^ before we have sufficient 
records of the language, we cannot tell. Our earliest 
inscription shews us a Perfect of facto whose existence 
we should never have guessed, had it not been thus 
accidentally preserved to us. Fefakei was an old by- 
form of fekei (Class. Lat. feci)^ as pepigi is of pegi. But 
how many similar by-forms the Perfects of other Verbs 
may have had, it is impossible to say. It is a significant 
fact that our second oldest inscription, the Dvenos In- 
scription, though nearly every letter of it can be deter- 
mined with exactness, is yet in great part unintelligible 
to us. We cannot with certainty assign to some of 
its forms equivalents in Classical Latin. 

10. But from the middle of the third century B.C. 
we have more material for ascertaining the actual forms 



The Earliest Period. 



11 



of the early laDguage, and can draw up paradigms of the 
Declensions in some such shape as this : — 



Nom. 



First Declension, e.g. terra, 
Sing. 
terrd^ then term 



Gen. (1) terras (cf . class, paterfamilias) 

(2) terrain then terrai 
Dat. terrai, which became (1) terrd^ 
afterwards dropped, (2) terrai 
Ace. terrdnn^ then terrdm 
Abl. terrdd 



Plur. 
Nom. terrai, , then 

terrai 
Gen. terrdsom, then 

terrd7'67n 
Dat. Abl. terrais, then 

terreis 
Ace. terrds 



Second Declension, e.g. dolos (class, dolus). 



Sing. 
Nom. M. dolbs 

(N. donbm) 
Gen. (?o?i 

Dat. doloi, which became (1) 
dolb, (2) doloi, after- 
wards dropped 
Ace. dolbm 
Voc. doZe 
Abl. dolod 



Plur. 
Nom. M. doloif then cZoZei 
(N. dona, then dona) 
Gen. (1) dolom, then dolbm 

(2) dolbsom, then dolbrbm 
Dat. Abl. dolois. then doleis 



Ace. 



dolos 



Third Declension, e.g. g^enos (class, genus). 

Sing. Plur. 

Nom. N. grenos Nom. N. genesd, then generd, 

genera 



M.F. (maier, orator, navis) 
Gen. (1) geneses, then generes 
(2) genesbs, then generbs, 
afterwards dropped 



M.F. (matres (?), naves) 
Gen. genesbm, then generbm 



12 



Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 



Dat. 



Sing. 
genesai, then generei 



Ace. (matrem, navirri) 

Abl. (1) genesif then generi 
(2) genesid, then generid 



Plur. 

Dat. Abl. genesibos, then ^e^ie- 

Ace. (matres, navis) 



Demonstrative Pronouns : - 


— 








h5-, he-, 'this ' 




61-S6-, *that' 






Sing. 




Nom. 


M. 


he-ce 


(1) 


olios, (2) oZZo, then olle 




F. 


hdi-ce 




olid, then oZZa 




M. 


hod-ce^ hocce 




oZZo(^ 


Gen. 




hoios (?) 




olloios, then olleios 


Dat. 




hoi'Ce (?) 




olloi, then oZZei 


Loc. 




hei'Ce (the class. 
Adv. hiG *here') 




oZZei (cf. i'ZZi Plant. = class. 
illlc 'there') 


Ace. 


M. 


hon-ce 




ollom 




F. 


hdn-ce 




olldm, then 'dm 


Abl. 


M.N. 


hod-ce, hocce 




olldd 




F. 


hdd-ce, hacce 




olldd 






Plur. 




Nom. 


M. 


hoi, then hei (unac- 
cented) 




olloi, then ollei 




F. 


hdi, with Particle hdi 


-ce 


olldi, with Particle olldi-ce 




N. 


hdi-ce 


(1) 


olid, (2) olldi-ce 


Gen. 


M.N. 


hosom, then horbm 




ollosom, then ollorbm 




F. 


hdsom, then harbm 




olldsom, then ollarom 


Dat. ^ 
Abl./ 




hois 1 then heis (un- 
hais i accented) 




ollois ) _ 

, . V then oZZeis 
oZZais J 


Ace. 


M. 


hos 




olios 




F. 


has 




ollds 



The older language allowed the Particle -ce to be added 
or left out at will, e.g. 0. Lat. haec, hae Pern. PI. 



The Earliest Period. 



13 



Kelative, Indefinite (Interrogative) Pronoun : — 







quo- 


qui- 


Nom. 


M. 


SlNG. 

qub-i^ then quei (unaccented) 


qui-s 




F. 


qud-l 






N. 


qub-d 


qui-d 


Gen. 




quo-eios, then quoios 




Dat. 




quo-eiei, then quoiei 




Ace. 


M. 




quern 




F. 


qudm, then qudm 




Abl. 


M.N. 
F. 


quod ^ 
quad ) 

Plur. 


quid 


Nom. 


M. 


quoi^ then quei (unaccented) 


ques 




F. 


qudi 






■ N. 


qudi 




Gen. 


M.N. 


quosom, then quorbm 






F. 


qudsbm^ then quarbm 




Dat. 1 
Abl. 1 




quois^ then quels (unaccented) 


qiCibus 


Ace. 


M. 
F. 


qubs "1 
quds) 


ques 



11. For the Verb we may construct a paradigm like 
this : — 



Pres. Ind. Active. 

1st Sg. lego 

2d Sg. leges (i) 

3d Sg. leget(i) 

1st PI. legembs 

2d PI. legetes 

3d PI. Iegb7it(i) 



Pres. Ind. Passive. 
1st Sg. legbr 

2d Sg. (1) legesb (?), then legese^ legere 

(2) legeres 
3d Sg. legetbr 

1st PI. legembr 

2d PI. legemenoi^ then -ei 

3d PI. legbntbr 



14 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

12. At the time when the imitation of Greek literature 
was begun by Livius Andronicus, c. 250 b.c, the older 
laAv of accentuation, by which the first syllable of every 
word received the accent (§ 3), had been replaced by the 
new law, the law which remained in force in classical 
Latin. By the new law the accent fell on the paenultima, 
if the paenultima were long, and on the antepaenultima 
if the paenultima were short. The older accentuation, 
however, as we have seen, still persisted in four-syllabled 
words of the scansion \j \j kj ^, e.g. fdcilms, bdlineum 
(class, balneum), vigilia, which did not become faciliuSy 
vigilia, etc., till the first century e.g. It is easy to see 
how the change from the old to the new Accentuation 
Law would gradually be effected. Long words like 
tempestatibus would at all times have two accents, a main 
accent and a secondary, just as long words with us, e.g. 
^characteristic,' have a secondary accent on the first 
syllable, ^ char-,' as well as the main accent on the penult. 
Under the Old Law of Accentuation the main accent 
belonged to the initial syllable ' terry-/ the secondary 
accent would fall on the antepenultimate syllable 'sta-.^ 
Under the new law the main accent was transferred to 
the antepenultimate, the secondary to the initial syllable. 
So that the change from the old to the new accentuation 
in such a word as tempestatibus would be merely the 
change from tempestatibus to t^mpestdtibus. 

13. In any account of the accentuation of a language 
this secondary accent, though it is to be found in all 
languages, is seldom mentioned. It is the main accent 
which is thought of and spoken of as ^ the accent ' of the 



The Beginning of Literature. 15 

word. The secondary accent of Latin words^ however, 
seems to have played a part in that curious primitive 
metre which was employed by the Eomans in their rude 
native poetry before the introduction of the artificial 
metres of the Greeks, and which held its place beside 
these foreign importations for a considerable time. It is 
known as the Saturnian Metre, and seems to have been, 
like our own metres, regulated by the accent of the word 
and not by the quantity (long or short) of the syllable. 
The Saturnian line probably consisted of two portions, 
the first syllable of the line being invariably accented. 
The first contained, as a rule, seven syllables, always 
with three accent-beats. The second contained, as a 
rule, six syllables, always with two accent-beats. The 
prevailing type (see Amer. Journ, Pliil.^ vol. xiv.) is : — 
/ / -^ / / 

XX(,) XX, XXX II XXX, XXX 

dabunt malum Metelli 1 1 Naevio poetae, 
though another type is occasionally found : — 

XX(,) XX, XXX |] XXXX, XX 

prim(a) incedit Cereris || Proserpina puer. 

The secondary accent is recognized in this metre in this 
way. Of the three accents in the first half of the line 
and of the two accent-beats in the second half, any one 
may be a secondary accent. For example, in the Scipio 
Epitaph, No. 25, the first half of one line is made up of 
the words 

dedet Tempestatebus, 



16 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

that is dedit Tempestatibus ^he presented to the Divinities 
of the Storm.' Here we have the requisite number of 
accent-beats in the hemistich, three in all j but they are 
not three main accents. There are two main accents, 
the accent on the first syllable of dedet and that on the 
antepaenultima of Tempestatebus ; but the third, the 
accent on the first syllable of this word, is a secondary 
accent. 

14. The secondary accent plays a part, too, in the 
phonetic changes of the language, for the vowels of the 
syllables on which it fell were not weakened or synco- 
pated like the unaccented vowels. The process of Vowel- 
weakening which began a century or more before (see 
§ 3) continued in operation after the beginning of Eoman 
Literature. Unaccented 5 was weakened to u, e.g. genus 
from older genos (cf. Gk. yeVos), dolus from older dolos 
(cf. Gk. SoAos), a weakening which was probably fully 
effected in pronunciation by the end of the third century 
B.C., though the older spelling was often retained. In- 
deed, in words where an unaccented 6 was preceded by 
the spirant u (v), 2i spirant which had the sound of our 
^o, e.g. deiuos, a god, the spelling with o was retained 
down to the beginning of the Empire, through a desire 
to avoid the use of two ^l's side by side, deiuus (diuus). 
However, in pronunciation demos may very likely have 
become deiuus at the same time as dolos became dolus. As 
early as the time of Plautus we find that the last syllable 
has been reduced from the sound -uus (-vus) to -us ; for it 
must have been from some form like deius that the short- 
ened form of the word deus arose. Similarly bouom 



The Beginning of Literature. 17 

(Gk. /3o(f)(i)v) Gen. Plur. of bos became by the Latin 
Phonetic law which shortened every long vowel before 
a final -m, boudm, and this unaccented 6 passed in pro- 
nunciation to u, with the result that bouum became 
bourn. 

Unaccented e was similarly weakened to i. Generis, 
for example, is the new form of generes, originally 
geneses (§ 6). An unaccented a which had before the 
beginning of the Eoman literature sunk to e, was accord- 
ingly now reduced a stage further to i. But before r or 
a consonant-group the e-sound remained. Peperi from 
'pdrio did not become pepiri, like cecidi from cddo. Remex 
from remus and ago did not become remix; though 
before a single consonant we find i in remigo, etc. 

Before a labial (b, p, m) the weakened vowel took the 
form u, which acquired the sound of short German li, 
and in time came to be pronounced and written i. The 
change to l occurred earliest where the next syllable con- 
tained an i which preceded a vowel, e.g. surrlpio from rdpio 
(cf. surrupui in Plautus), incipio from cdpio (cf. occupo). 

15. At the same time that unaccented e became i and 
unaccented o became u, we find accented e and 6 in 
certain positions passing into the same vowel-sounds. 
Thus e became i before ng in words like tingo (Gk. 
Tcyyo)) ; 6 became il before 7ig in words like unguis (Gk. 
ovv^). See Latin Language, ch. iv. §§ 11, 20; Bennett, 
App., §§ 73,76. 



18 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

INSCRIPTIONS. 

I. The ^^ Praenestine fibula/' a brooch [fibula] found at 
Praeneste (perhaps fifth cent. b.c). (C.LL. xiv. 4123.) 

Manios med fefaked Numasioi. 
Manius me fecit Numerio. 
' Manius made me for Numerius*' 

This is our oldest inscription. The vowels are not 
yet weakened in the syllable following the accent, which 
would fall at this period on the first syllable of each 
word (§ 3), e.g. Numasioi. Thus we have fefaked, but 
not yet ^fefeked'; Numasioi, but not yet ^ Numesioi.' 
The first of these words, fgfSked, is a by-form, which 
soon became obsolete, of the classical Perf . of facio, cor- 
responding to pepigi beside pegi; the second, Numasioi, 
is the Dative of a derivative from the root of the name 
Numa, which became in Latin Nitmerio-, and in other 
dialects NUmisio-. Our inscription is earlier than the 
change of s between vowels to r (§ 6). 

The style of its writing is very ancient, for the redu- 
plication syllable fe is separated from the rest of the 
word, and the sound / is expressed by FH, the Greek 
digamma, followed by the sign for h. This appears to 
have been the earliest method of expressing the sound 
/, a sound made at this time with the two lips, not with 
the upper teeth and the lower lip. This bilabial f- 
sound, which may be compared to the sound we make 
with our lips in blowing out a candle, was, in the Greek 
writing of the time, expressed by this combination of 



The Beginning of Literature. 19 

the digamma with the letter H, a letter which was after- 
wards used as a symbol of the long e-sound, but whose 
earlier use was as a symbol of the breathing. In course 
of time the Eomans came to drop the second half of 
this double symbol FH, and retained only the sign F 
(§ 8). On the terminations -os of Manios^ -d of med, -ed 
(for -eid) of fefaked, -oi^ a diphthong^ of Numasioi, see 
§§ 2, 19, 8, 10. 

II. The " Dvenos bowl/' a triple sacrificial bowl, found 
at Eome. (Egbert, Introd. Study Lat. Inscr., p. 16.) 

loneis (? -ues) at deinos qoi med mitat nei ted endo cosmis 
Virco sied asted noisi Ope Toitesiai pakari uois Duenos 
med feced (? feked) en Manom einom dienoine med Mano 
statod. (Perhaps early fourth cent, b.c.) 

Jovios (?) ad deos qui me mittet (9 mittat), ne te indo 
comis Virgo sit, adstet, nisi Opem Tuteriae ^pacrem vis. 
Benus me fecit in Manum enim. Die noni me Mano 
stato (i.e. sistito), 

^ Who offers me to the Gods of the Sky, may Proserpine 
not be kind to thee, nor stand by thee, unless thou 
wouldst have the Help of Tuteria propitious. Benus 
made me for Manus indeed. On the ninth day set me 
(as offering) to Manus.' 

Neither the meaning nor the division into words of 
this inscription is certain. The rendering of it given 
above understands it to prescribe that the bowl is to 
be used only in offerings to Manus, one of the Di Manes, 
or gods of the lower world, but to none of the gods 



20 HandhooTc of Latin Inscriptions, 

of the upper air. An exception is made in the case of 
Ops Tuteriae, apparently a religious designation of the 
same kind as the priestly invocations which Aulus Gel- 
lius (xiii. 23. 2) has preserved for us : Luam Saturni, 
Salaciam Neptuni^ Horam Quirini, Virites Quirini, Maiam 
Volcani, Heriem Junonis, Moles Martis Nerienemque 
Martis. 

Einom seems to be used like Virgil's e^iim in the line : 
tibi enim, tibi, maxima Juno, mactat (A. viii. 84). 

The active use of sto is characteristic of Early Latin. 
Cf . Jupiter Stator ' the stayer of the rout/ procul dbstan- 
dus est {amor) Plant. Trin, 264, etc. The neuter sense 
appears in asted. Duenos would be in Class. Lat. Benus, 
and is a proper name connected with the Adj. bonus (cf. 
bene), the old form of which was duonus (see my Hist. 
Gram. ch. x. § 13). Nei, afterwards ni, is used in the 
sense of Class. Lat. ne; cf. Virg. A. iii. 683 ni teneant 
cursus. Pakari(m) is, in the above rendering, supposed 
to be Ace. Sg. of a ELstem Adj. from the root of pax, 
meaning ^propitious.' This Adj. stem pacri- is common 
in this sense in other dialects of Italy; but in Latin 
literature we have no example of the Adj., though the 
Noun pax, in the sense of ' divine favour,' is common 
enough; e.g. Plant. Trin. 837 ni tua pax propitia foret 
praesto; Virg. A. x. 31, sine pace tua atque inuito 
numine. This use of a parasitic vowel between c and r 
is, however, un-Latin, and pakari may represent an Adj., 
pacarem. The formation of noisi is doubtful, but the 
sense of nisi is, rightly or wrongly, usually given to it. 
With Nei . . . asted, compare the Greek formula ^vikarov 



The Beginning of Literature. 21 

Tvxoi ^'^fJirjTpo<; Koi Kopas. The word comis had, in later use, 
the more homely sense ^ civil ^ ; but cf . the oracle of Marcius 
(Livy, XXV. 12), ludi qui quotannis comiter Apollini fiant. 

Archaic features of this inscription are : (1) the use of 
q for qit in qoi ; (2) the distinction of the lending of the 
3d Sg. Subj. mitat (which probably has the Fut. sense, 
an early sense of the Subjunctive Mood), and the cZ-ending 
of the 3d Sg. Opt. sied, asted (which here, it should be 
noticed, have the true Optative use, ^ I pray that Proser- 
pine may not be kind to thee, may not stand by thee '), 
and of the 3d Sg. Perf . Ind. feked ; (3) the retention of 
the group sm, e.g. cosmis. Class. Lat. comis; (4) the use 
of the letter C for the Z[;-sound, cosmis, as well as the 
^-sound, uirco; (5) the retention of s between vowels, e.g. 
Toitesiai. Whether any method is followed in the use 
of the guttural-symbols, c in cosmis, uirco, k in pakari, 
and either c or k in feced (? feked), is not easy to say 
(§ 8). Nor is the use of the diphthongs quite clear in 
noisi, einom, noine. Vowel-weakening appears in the 
post-tonic syllable of Toitesiai if this represent an earlier 
Toitasia- (cf. the dialectal name Tutisulanus), but not in 
the monosyllabic diphthong qoi. 

In contrast with the Praenestine Eibula, notice feced 
for the other's fefaked (§ 9) and the Dat. Sg. in -o, Mano, 
for the other's -oi, Numasioi (§ 10). 

loueis or loues, apparently Ace. Plur. Masc. of the 
lO-stem Jovio-, an Adj. derived from the root dyew- 
(Gk. Zev?, Lat. Ju-piter), the original sense of which was 
^the sky.' We find mention of various di Jovii on in- 
scriptions, e.g. Venenis Joviae (see No. 51 a), HercuU Jovio, 



22 Handhooh of Latin Inscriptions, 

etc. at. On this by-form of ad, see § 20 ; Lat Language, 
chap. ii. § 76. deiuos. The diphthong ei has not yet 
passed into ^ (§ 5). qoi. This is the older form of the 
diphthong. The weakened form^ ei, which properly be- 
longed to the unaccented use of the Eelative, became in 
time the universal form, whence Class. Lat. qui (§ 5). 
med, see § 19. mitat, Class. Lat. mittat, probably with 
the sense of mittet. Double consonants were written 
with the single letter till the time of Ennius (§ 17). nei 
(see above), ted, old form of te, as med of me (§ 19). endo,- 
later indo, indii, a Prep, compounded of in (older en, 
cf. Gk. €]/) and a lost Prep, do (cf. donee). See my Hist. 
Gram. ch. viii. § 18. Notice how the Prep, stands 
between the Adj. and Noun, loueia at deiuos (Hist. 
Gram. ch. viii. § 1), and follows its Pronoun, ted endo 
(cf. meeum, tecum), but precedes its Noun when no Adj. 
is used, en Manom. On sied, see Hist. Gram. ch. vi. § 13. 
asted for adst-. Already at this early period the group 
dst is reduced to st, though grammatical purists at a 
later age restored the full form of the Prep, in these 
compounds. Noisi is difficult to explain. The true pre- 
cursor of Class. Lat. nisi (nisi) would be nesei. Ope. 
Why Ope and pakari should not have the final m ex- 
pressed in writing, while Manom and einom have, is 
hard to say, unless the reason lay in the consonant- 
initial of the following word t-, v-, while Manom is fol- 
lowed by a vowel-initial and einom is ^ in pausa,^ at the 
end of a sentence. 

Toitesiai. On oi, later u, see § 7. The Gen. ending 
is disyllabic, -di ; see § 10. 



The Beginning of Literature. 23 

pakari. The explanation of this word is very doubtful. 
uois, supposed to be Class. Lat. vis, 

Duenos. For -os see § 2. Pronounce die- like our dw- (see 
above), feked. On the termination see § 8. en^ see § 14. 
Manom. On the termination see § 2. The stem mdno- 
stands to the stem mdni- of Manes, immanis as sdcro- of 
sacer to sdcri- oi porci sacres ^pigs for sacrifice' (Plant.). 
einom. The exact relation of this word to enim is not 
clear. The true representative of einom would be in 
Class. Lat. mum, dienoine, a Locative^ the -e of noine 
apparently representing the diphthong ei (§ 8). The two 
words die and noine form one word-group, to judge from 
the remark of Aulus Gellius (x. 24. 7): ^diequinte' et 
' diequinti ' pro adverbio copulate dictum est, secunda in 
60 syllaba correpta. See my Hist. Gram, ch. ii. § 11. 
statod. On the -d see Hist, Oram, ch. vi. § 14. 

We may eke out these scanty remains of the very 
earliest period with the corrupt and uncertain fragments 
of some religious hymns, which belong to the same 
remote stage of antiquity: — 

III. The Carmen Arvale, inscribed among the Acta 
Collegii Pratrum Arvalium of 218 a.d., discovered at 
Eome. {CLL, i. 28.) 

1. enos Lases iuuate. 
enos Lases innate, 
enos Lases innate. 

2. nene Ine rne Marmar sins inonrrere in pleoris. 
nene Ine rne Marmar sins incnrrere in pleoris. 
nene Ine rne Marmar sins incnrrere in pleoris. 



24 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions, 

3. satur fu fere Mars limen sali sta berber. 
satur fu fere Mars limen sali sta berber. 
satur fu fere Mars limen sali sta berber. 

4. semunis alternei aduocapit conctos. 
semunis alternei aduocapit conctos. 
semunis alternei aduocapit conctos. 

5. enos Marmor iuuato. 
enos Marmor iuuato. 
enos Marmor iuuato. 

6. triumpe. 
triumpe. 
triumpe. 
triumpe. 
triumpe. 

Neither the reading nor the sense of the above is at 
all certain. The Carmen Arvale was probably like the 
Carmina Saliaria ^vix sacerdotibus snis satis intellecta' 
(Quintilian, i. 6. 40) ; and the difficulty is increased for 
us by the fact that the workman who has carved the 
inscription has made a number of blunders, which we 
have to emend as best we can. The subjoined rendering 
is therefore only tentative : — 

1. nos(f), Lares ^ juvate, 2. neve luera, ruem, Marmar^ sine 
incurrere in plures, 3. satur esto, fere Mars, limen sali, siste 
verher, 4. semones alternatim advocabit cunctus, 5. nos(.^), 
Marmor, juvato. 6. triumphe! 

How much of all this is genuine Early Latin, and how 
much is the mere jingling perversion of old phrases by 



The Beginning of Literature. 25 

priests who did not understand them, it is difficult to 
say. The mere fact that Lases (with s retained between 
vowels) and pleoris (with intervocalic s turned to r) occur 
in the same inscription shews us that it has not been 
preserved unchanged. 

enos. The very first word offers a difficulty. It is 
generally rendered nos. But the parallel of (€)/x€ in 
Greek from the root (e)mo- does not quite warrant the 
inference of (e)no in Latin from the root of the 1st Plur. 
Pron. Perhaps enos iuuate represents en nos iuicate, i.e. 
^injuvatenos (cf. adjuvate 7ios). On the Tmesis see Hist. 
Gram, ch. vii. § 1^ and on the absence of double con- 
sonants in early writing, § 17. 

lue(m) rue(m), Acc. Sg. of Verbal Nouns from luo and 
ruo, lues and rues. The Asyndeton, luem ruem for lue7n 
et ruem, is a feature of Ante-classical Latin, sins is gen- 
erally explained as an athematic 2d Sg. of sino with 
Imperative sense, often called ^Injunctive' (cf. Gr. So-?). 
Marmar is apparently some reduplicated form of the 
name Mars. The forms Mars and Marmor also occur in 
the hymn, and the variation looks like a piece of genuine 
ancient usage. For we know from passages like Horace 
(aS'. ii. 6. 20 ; C. S, 15-16) how important it was regarded 
to address a deity on each occasion by the fitting name : — 

(S. ii. 6. 20) MatQtine pater seu Jane libentius audis. 
(C. S. 15-16) sive tu Lucina probas vocari, Seu Genitalis. 

When the consonant r occurred in two neighbouring 
syllables of a word, one r was often dropped, e.g. in- 
creb(r)esco, praest{r)igiae. Hence Ma(r)mers. 



26 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

pleoris is certainly the spelling of the carver, but the 
form that preceded Class. Lat. plures was ploer- (not 
pleor-)j the earlier stage of which was plois- (§§ 6, 7). 
fu is athematic 2d Sg. Imperative of 0. Lat. fuo, whence 
Class. Lat. fui (Hist. Gram. ch. vi. § 8). limen sali seems 
to be merely limen sali ' leap over the threshold ^ ; and 
sta berber is perhaps a mere Late Latin misspelling of 
sta verber, ' stay thy scourge.' The translation stafervere 
^desist from raging/ or better (with the active use of 
stare, p. 20, above) ^ cause raging to stop/ leaves us to 
explain how berber can represent Class. Lat. fervere or 
0. Lat. fervere. Semunis is generally equated with the 
semones aut semideos mentioned by Martianus Capella 
(ii. 156), semo apparently standing for semi-homo (cf. 
nemo). Another rendering is ^the Sowers' (cf. semen). 
alternei is Loc. Sg. used as an Adverb ' alternately,' like 
alternis (Loc. Plur.) in Virg. aduocapit differs from Class. 
Lat. advocabit only in its p instead of b. conctos is Nom. 
Sg. Masc. On the termination see § 2, and on -one- for 
Class. Lat. -unc- § 14. triumpe. The use of ph is not 
found till the end of the Eepublic (§ 23). 

IV. The Carmina Saliaria, we have seen, were styled 
by Quintilian ^vix sacerdotibus suis satis intellecta.' 
Horace speaks of them in the same way (Epp. ii. 1. 
86): — 

iam Saliare Numae carmen qui laudat et illud, 
quod mecum ignorat, solus uolt scire uideri. 

We have a few scanty fragments preserved by the 
quotation of Grammarians, fragments of doubtful text 



The Beginning of Literature, 27 

and still more doubtful meaning, such as the follow- 
ing:^— 

(a) diuom fempta (? leg. patrem) cante, diuom deo supplicate. 

divoriim patrem ( 9) canite, divorum deo ( ? deum) sup- 
plicate. 

This is a line from the Hymn to Janus. Cante seems 
to be a syncopated form of canite; cf. ccddus, a by-form 
of caliduSj current at the end of the Eepublican period. 

(h) , , , Sancus lanis es, duonus Oerus es, duonus lanusque 
tpomeliosum recum. 
Sancus Janis es^ bonus Cerus es, bonus Janusque 
— meliorum regum. 

This is another line from the Janus Hymn. 

lanis is a by-form of Janus, as Manes Plur. is of Manus 
(No. 2). On duonus see Hist. Gram. p. 155. Cerus, con- 
nected with creo, is explained by Eoman Grammarians as 
creator. The same word, or a word from the same root, 
appears in dialectal divinity-names like Cerfo-, Cerso-, etc. 
On the s of -meliosiim see § 6. The first syllable may be 
the old Preposition p6 (cf. Gk. Sltto), a by-form of ab, 
seen in po-situs, po-lio, po-lubrum, a wash-basin {Hist, 
Gram. ch. vii. § 2). recum. On c for g see § 8. 

(c) tq.iionin0 tonas, Leucesie, prai tet tremonti , . , 
cum tonas, Lucesie, praetremunt te. 

quomne, an old form of cum (quom) augmented by the 
particle -ne. The eu of Leucesie (connected with lux) is 

1 1 mark the speciaUy doubtful words with an obelus. 



28 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

strange, for I.-Eur. eu became ou in Latin. Tet is a way 
of writing ted, like a^for ad, p. 22. In tremonti we have 
apparently the oldest form of the 3d Plur. -onti (cf . Dor. 
Gk. -ovTi, Att. -ovdi), which became, with loss of final -i, 
tremontf then tremunt (§ 14). In Early Latin an enclitic 
Pronoun, etc., was placed between the Prep, and the Verb 
in a Compound Verb, e.g. prae te tremunt for praetremimt 
te, sub vosplaco for suppUco vos, oh vos sacro for obsecro vos. 

(d) pilnmnoe poploe (? leg, pilumnoi poploi). 
pilumni popuU, 

This is an epithet of the Eomans, ^the javelin-armed 
tribes.' 

Pilumnoi is Nom.. Plur. in -oi (§ 10) of a word derived 
from j9?7i^m, a javelin. Poplo- is a by-stem oi popido-. 

Vases, mirrors, and jewel-boxes found at Praeneste, 
which date from the fourth century onwards, have early 
Latin inscriptions of a dialectal type. (C.LL, i. 43sqq. ; 
XIV. 4094 sqq.) 

V. Praenestine Vases ; — 

(a) Belolai pocolom. (d) Volcani pocolom. 
Bellulae poculum. Vulcani poculum, 

(b) Lanernai pocolom, (e) Aisclapi pocolom. 
Lavernae pocidum, Aesculapii pocidura, 

(c) Saeturni pocolom. (/) Salutes pocolom. 
Saturni poculum, Salutis poculum. 

These are all (except possibly the first) vases be- 
longing to temples, and inscribed with the name of the 
deity to whose temple they belonged. In the Rudens 



The Beginning of Literature. 29 

of Plautus there is a mention of sacra iirna Veneria, a 
vessel belonging to th.e temple of Venus, and inscribed 
with the name of the goddess. Sceparnio, who has been 
helping one of the attendants at the temple to draw 
water, finds himself left alone with the vessel in his pos- 
session, and is afraid he may get into trouble (v. 478) : — 

nam haec litteratast, eapse cantat cuja sit. 
"for it is lettered and itself proclaims its owner's name." 

On the Genitive terminations, see § 10. Saeturno- is 
the older form of the name of the god Sdturno-, found 
also in the Saliar Hymns, according to Festus : qui deus 
in Saliaribus Saeturnus nominatur, videlicet a sationibus. 
Aisdapio- is Class. Lat. Aesculapius (Dor. Gk. 'Ao-KAaTrto?). 

VI. Praenestine Mirrors : — 

(a) Uenos Dionem Prosepnai. (cZ) Castor Amucos Polouces, 
Venus JovemProserpinae Castor, Amycus, Pollux, 

(sc. conc(Uat). 

(b) Mirqnrios Alixentrom. (e) luno louei Hercele. 
Mercurius Alexandrum. Juno Jovi Herculem. 

(c) Poloces Losna Amuces. (/) Oanumede Diespater Oupido 
Pollux. Luna, Amycus, Menerua. 

Ganymedes, Jupiter, Cu- 
pido, Minerva. 

The backs of these bronze mirrors have figures of deities, 
with the name written beside each figure. We thus get 
an interesting glimpse at the earh^ popular (apparently dia- 
lectal) names of the Greek deities. Prosepna- is nearer 



30 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

the Dor. Gk. n€pcr£<;f>dT/a than the Class. Lat. Proserpina^ 
which has been altered on the false analogy of proserpo. 
The Dative case Prosepnai was at one time read as Pro- 
sepnais, a curl of the goddess' hair being mistaken for 
the letter s. Hence in some text-books the imaginary 
^^Gen. Sg. of the 1st Decl. in -aisJ^ Mirqurios is with 
its i for e a dialectal form like Rustic Latin stircxis for 
stercus (see No. 33). Alixentrom with its tr probably repre- 
sents the actual pronunciation, for the group dr seems to 
have become tr in Latin, e.g. dtro- for ^adro-, nutrix for 
"^nudrix, etc. (but quadra, etc.). ^Poludouces would be 
the earliest representative on Latin soil of ILoXv^eoKri^ 
(on ou for en, see § 7) ; then, with Syncope of the second 
syllable (§ 3), "^Poldouces, which would become PoUouces, 
the Polouces of (d) (on I for U, see § 17). The o of 
Poloces of (c) is a dialectal equivalent of ou. Losna has 
the same dialectal o for ou. The original form would be 
^Louxna, whence has come the Class. Lat. Luna (§ 22). 
On the c of Canumede, see § 8. Menerua, probably still a 
quadrisyllable, was originally ^Menes-ud (§ 6), the vowel 
of the first syllable being afterwards changed perhaps 
by false analogy of minor, ' the lesser deity.' 

VII. ^ Praenestine jewel-boxes {cistae). 

(a) Dindia Macolnia fileai dedit. 
Dindia Magulnia fiUae dedit, 

Nouios Plautios med Eomai fecid. 
Novius Plautius me Bomae fecit. 



The Beginning of Literature. 31 

The different spelling of the terminations of dedit and 
fecid is curious. Fileai is perhaps dialectal for filial. On 
med see § 19^ and on Romai (Locative), class. Romae, § 7. 

These jewel-boxes usually have elaborate carving on 
the lid, sometimes with names indicating the personages 
delineated. Among these early (dialectal) forms of the 
names of gods and heroes found on Praenestine cistae may 
be mentioned : Aciles Achilles, Tondrus Tyndareiis, Acme- 
meno Agamemnon, pater poumilionom pater pumilionum, 
' the father of the dwarfs ^ (on -om Gen. Plur. see § 2), 
Oinumama Unimamma, ' an Amazon.' 

A Praenestine cista (probably later in date than 
others) in a French collection has a curious kitchen 
scene, with words attributed to the various personages en- 
gaged in cooking {Melanges d^ArcJieologie, 1890^ p. 303) : — 



(b) feri porod 


cofeci 


made mi recie 


feri porro 


confed 


made ( ? -t) mi regie 


' strike away ' 


' I have done ' 


' boil (? it boils) 
nobly for me ' 


misc sane 


asom fero 


confice piscim 


misce sane 


assum (arsum) fero 


confice piscem 


^yes! give 


*I am carrying 


' get the fish done ' 


me wine ' 


this to the fire ' 





the whole being entitled coenalia, cenalia Neut. Plur., ' a 
dinner scene.' 

The variety of spelling between cofeci and confice (§ 22), 
porod, recie, and sane (§ 19) is probably not due to mere 
carelessness of orthography, but represents the tendencies 



32 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

of the pronunciation of tlie day. On the single r of 
porod^ see § 17, and on the Ablatival d, § 10. If misc 
is not a miswriting for misce, it must come from a 3d 
Conj. ^misco, Imperat. misce (on the dropping of final 
Cy see below, § 21). On the single s of asom, see § 17, 
and on -om, § 2. Piscim shews the true Ace. ending of 
I-stems, often altered to the -em of Cons. Stems {Hist. 
Gram. ch. iii. § 8). The spelling coenalia is interesting, 
for it proves that even at this early period the Latin cena 
had been wrongly connected with the Greek koiv6<;, 

VIII. Dedicatory inscription from the grove of Diana 
at Nemi. {C.LL. xiv. 4182 a.) 

Diana M. Livio M. f. praitor dedit. 

Dianae M. Livius M(arci) f{ilius) praetor dedit. 

On the Dat., Diana, see § 10. Final -s is often 
omitted in the Nom. Sg. of lO-stems on early inscrip- 
tions. It seldom lengthens a short syllable by ' position ' 
in Early Latin Poetry (§ 20). Final -m was at all times 
weakly pronounced, so that it merely nasalized the pre- 
ceding vowel. It is often omitted on early inscriptions, 
as well as on late (§§ 20, 27). 

IX. On lip of bronze vase. (Ephemeris Epigraphica, 
ii. 299.) 

Q. Lainio Q. f. praifectos protrebibos fecit. 
Q. Laenius Q. f. praefectus pro tribubics fecit. 



The Beginning of Literature, 33 

The writing of the Prep, along with its ISToun^ pro- 
trebibos^ corresponded to the pronunciation^ for Prep, 
and Noun formed a single word-group. It was the 
practice down to late times (see my Hist. Gram. ch. ii. 
§ 11). The classical spelling tribubus did not express 
the sound in the classical period of the second syllable, 
but was a grammarian's device to distinguish, e.g. arcubus 
4th Decl. from arcibus 3d Decl. The spelling here with 
i seems to shew that the weakening of unaccented u to i 
(§ 14) had begun early. On the ending -bos of the Dat. 
Plur. see § 2. 

X. A dedication-tablet, found near Praeneste. (CI.L. 
I. 187.) 

M. Mindios L. fi. P. Oondetios Va. fi. aidiles uicesma parti 
Apolones dederi. 

M. Mindius L. fi.., P. Conditiiis VaQerii) fi. aediles vice- 
simam partem Apollinis (^^ belonging to Apollo ^^) dederi 
(sc. aedi). 



mcesma(m), with its Syncope of the penultimate vowel, 
is not a pure Latin form, parti(m). On this old Ace. of 
pars, preserved in the Adverb partim (cf . maximam par- 
tem used adverbially), see above, § 10. Apolones (on I 
for II see § 17) preserves the Greek declension of the 
name, like Castoris. On the Gen. termination -es, see 
§ 10. If dederi be a true form, the -e of Class. Lat. 
dedere must have come from an original L (On dialectal 
dedro ' dederunt,^ see No. 29, below.) 



34 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions, 

XI. Dedicatory inscription found in Picenum. (C.I.L. 
I. 181.) 

L. Terentio L, f. L. Aprufenio 0. f. L. Turpilio 0. f. M. Albani 
L. f. T. Munatio T. f. quaistores aire moltaticod dederont. 

L. Terentius . . . Jf . Albanius . . . quaestores aere mul- 
tatico (from the money raised by fines) dederunt. 

On the Abl. forms aire and moltaticod see § 10. The 
Nom. Sg. Albani(s) represents a common declension of 
lO-stems (Hist. Gram, ch. iii. § 6). On the dropping of 
final s see § 20, and on the o of molta-, § 16. 

XII. On a small pillar found at Tusculum. (C.I.L. i. 
63.)' 

M. Ponrio 0. f. tribunos militare de praidad Maurte dedet. 

M. Furius C(aii) /(ilius) tribunus militaris de praeda 
Marti dedit. 

The loss of final -s in Fourio (on the diphthong see 
§ 7) and militare shews the tendency of the pronuncia- 
tion of the day (see below, § 20). praidad shews the 
old d termination of the Abl. Sg. (§ 10) and the diph- 
thong ai (§ 7). Whether Maurte is meant for Mavurte, 
i.e. Mavorti, or represents a vowel sound which became 
a in Marti, is hard to say. On the -et of dedet, a spell- 
ing of -eit, as the 4e of Maurte is of -tei, see § 8. 

XIII. On a dedicatory bronze plate found at Nemi. 
(C.I.L XIV. 4269.) 

0. Manlio Aci. . . . cosol pro poplo Ariminesi. 

C. Manlius Aci(dinus) consul pro populo Ariminensi. 



The Beginning of Literature. 35 

This is not the consul of 179 e.g., but a magistrate 
(consul) of Ariminum. The lettering of the dedication 
is ancient ; but an Abl. like poplo without final d is not 
a feature of inscriptions of this time (see on ISTo. 34). 

A mark of inscriptions belonging to the close of the 
second century is the use of ii for the older o in final 
syllables. Examples of the encroachment of the younger 
form are : — 

XIV. Dedicatory inscription, found at Eome. {Not. 
Scav. 1890, p. 10.) 

. . . [Tre]bonius Q. f. Numisio Martio donom dedit meretod. 

. . . Trehonius Q. /. Numisio Martio donum dedit merito. 

Notice [Tre]bonius with it beside donom with o. Nu- 
misio is a dialectal form, the true Latin equivalent being 
Numerius (see on No. 7, above). On the e of meretod and 
the Abl. -dsee §§ 14, 19. 

XV. Dedicatory inscription, companion to the above. 
{C.LL. I. 190.) 

Numisio Martio M. Terebonio 0. 1. donum dat libens meritod. 

Numisio Martio M. Trehonius O. l(ibertus) donum dat 
libens merito. 

The i of libens and meritod are spellings which did not 
come into general use till a later time. On this, the 
inscription of a freedman, they are not inconsistent with 
antiquity. The spelling Terebonio with parasitic vowel 
between t and r is another mark of plebeian authorship. 



36 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

XVI. Dedicatory inscriptions on a pillar found at 
Praeneste. (CLL. xiy. 2891-3.) 

(a) L. Gemenio L. f. Pel. Hercole dono et dat lubs merto pro 
sed sueque ede leigibus ara Salutus. 

L. Gemmhis L. f. Pel{igna, sc. trihu) Her cult donum : 
et dat libens merito pro se suisqiie eisdem legibus 
(^ on the same conditions ') ai^am Salutis. 

(p) Q. K. Oestio Q. f. Hercole donu dedero. 

Q. (et) K(aeso) Cestius Q. fiilii) HercuU donum de- 
derunt. 

Both, these inscriptions have dialectal deflections from 
pure Latin ; lubs should be lubes (on es for ens, see § 22) ; 
merto should be mereto; sueque and ede should be suesque, 
esde (?) ; leigibus should probably be legibus, and dedero^ 
dederont (cf. No. 29 below). 

On the of Hercole, see § 14. Throughout the inscrip- 
tion the diphthong ei is written e (§ 8). On sed, see 
§ 19, and on -us (older -os) of Salutus, § 10. For Cestio 
(apparently Cestios, Nom. Sg.) we should expect the 
Nom. Plur., according to the Latin usage. Notice the 
intrusion of the ^modern' u (§ 14) in leigibus, donu(m). 

XVII. Dedicatory inscription, found in the sacred 
grove of Diana at Nemi. (C.LL. xiv. 4270.) 

Poublilia Turpilia On. uxor hoce seignum pro On. filiod Dianai 
donum dedit. 

Publilia Turpilia On. uxor hoc signum pro Cn. filio Dianas 
donum dedit. 



The Beginning of Literature, 37 

On the oil of Poublilia^ see § 7. Hoce for liocce (§ 7), 
a form preserved in the Class. Lat. interrogative hoccine, 
(for hocce-ne, § 14). The double consonant is still written 
single (§ 17). The ei of seignum perhaps indicates merely 
the e-sound which i (cf. slgillum) received before gn. (See 
my Latin Language^ ch. ii. § 144.) On fUiod, see § 19^ 
and on Dianai^ § 7. 

XYIII. Dedicatory inscription. (Cagnat, VAnnee 
EpigrapMque, 1890, No. '^o,) 

Aiscolapio donom L. Albanius E. f. dedit. 
Aesculapio donum L, Alhanius K. f. dedit. 

For Aiscolapio cf. the note on Aisclapi of No. 6 e. 

Two nearly contemporary inscriptions, whose date can 
be fixed, differ in their spelling of -05, -om, etc. 

XIX. Dedicatory inscription on an altar found at 
Eome; 217 B.C. (CIL. 1. 1503.) 

Hercolei sacrom M. Minuci 0. f. dictator uouit. 
Hercidi sacrum. M. Minucius C. /. dictator vovit. 

Minuci is the Nom. Sg. form of Minucio- that was used 
in ordinary speech, where also Minucim replaced Mlnu- 
cium (cf. Albania No. 17). On the o of Hercolei, sacrom, 
see § 14 ; and on the Dat. Sg. ending -ez, § 5. 

XX. Found at Eome ; c. 211 e.g. (C.I.L i. 530.) 

M. Claudius M. f. consol Hinnad cepit. 
M. Claudius M. /. consul ex Henna cepit. 



88 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

Livy (xxiv. 39) tells us of the capture of Henna^ in 
Sicily, by M. Claudius Marcellus. The use of the double 
consonant in the spelling of the town's name is interest- 
ing, for it is the earliest example of this practice on 
a Latin inscription (§ 17) ; though it is hardly a fair 
example, since it may be a mere reproduction of the 
Greek mode of spelling the name. The reason why 
Hinna, and not Henna, is written is not clear. Possibly 
the i reflects the Greek pronunciation of e as close e. 
(But gL didlt, No. 22, and see the remark on No. 24.) 

The variation, -us and -oZ, reappears in another inscrip- 
tion of the same consul : — 

XXI. Found at Eome; c. 211 e.g. (O.LL. i. 531.) 

Martei M. Olandius M. f. consol dedit. 
Marti M. Claudius M. f, consol dedit. 

It is also seen in an inscription of 200 e.g. 

XXII. Found in the sacred grove of Diana at Nemi. 
{CJ.L. XIV. 4268.) 

0. Aurilius 0, f. praitor iterum didit eisdim consol probavit. 
C. Aurelius 0. f. praetor iterum dedit; idem consul probavit. 

The I of Aurilius may exemplify that change of e to 
I seen in delinio for delenio, etc. (Hist, Gram. ch. ii. 
§ 15 ; B. App, § 90.) On eisdim, see § 22. 

XXIII. On a dedicatory bronze plate, found at Tibur, 
we have two inscriptions, one, with -us, -uim) for -os, -om, 
apparently somewhat later than the other (C.I.L. i. 62). 



The Beginning of Literature. 39 

(a) 0. Placentios Her. f. Marte sacrom, 

C. Flacentius IIer(ii) f. Marti sacrum. 

(b) 0. Placentins Her. f. Marte donu dede. 

C. Placentkts Her. f. Marti domim dedit. 
On donu and dede, see § 20. 

Tile same change is noticeable on the Scipio epitaphs, 
the three of which that belong to the third century I 
arrange in order of probable priority.^ 

XXIV. Epitaph of L. Cornelius Scipio, consul 259 b.c. 
{C.I.L. I. 31.) 

L. Oorneho L. f. Scipio aidiles cosol cesor. 

L. Cornelius L. f. Scipio aedilis consul censor. 

The -les for -lis in aidiles and the e of Tempestatehus 
in No. 25 are due to the confusion between e and i at 
this period when unaccented e was passing into i (§ 14). 

XXV. Epitaph of the same. {C.I.L. i. 32.) 
hone oino ploirnme cosentiont Eomai 
duonoro optnmo fuise niro 

Luciom Scipione fihos Barbati 
consol censor aidihs hie fuet apud uos 
hec cepit Corsica Aleriaque urbe 
dedet Tempestatebus aide meretod. 

hunc iinum plurimi conseyitiunt Bomae 
bonorum optimum fuisse virum 
Lucium Scipionem : filius Barbati 

1 There is no reason to "believe that each Scipio epitaph belongs to 
the date of the decease of the Scipio it commemorates. 



40 Handlook of Latin Inscriptions. 

consul, censor, aedilis hie fuit cqmcl vos : 
hie eepit Corsieam Aleriamque urhem : 
dedit TempestatibiLS aedem merito. 

oino(m) (on the diphthong see § 7) is the same forma- 
tion as Gk. 01V7J the ace. Engl. ^ one/ from the same root 
as Gk. oh^, alone, ploirume Nom. Plur. Masc. (on -e for -ei 
see § 8) shews the old form of Class. Lat. pliirimo-, the still 
older form of which had plois-, not ploir- (see my Hist, 
Gram. ch. iv. § 3). cosentiont retains the o of the termi- 
nation which soon after this time became -unt (§ 2). 
Romai is Locative (§ 7). duonoro(m). duono- is the old 
form of the stem bono-, found also in Livius Andronicus' 

Odyssey : — 

simul duona eorum portant ad nauis 

(see above, p. 20, on the name Dueno-, and for the change 
of du- to b; Hist. Gram. ch. x. § 13). The Gen. Plur. 
ending -orom, earlier -osom, and later -drum, belonged at 
first to Pronouns only, but was extended to Adjectives 
(as duonoro here), and from Adjectives to Nouns, until 
it finally expelled altogether the true Noun and Adj. 
ending -dm, later -um (Hist. Gram. ch. iii. § 6). iiiro 
may be Gen. Plur. with this true Noun ending or Ace. Sg. 
Livy (xxix. 14. 8) tells us that this title was conferred 
by the Senate in 204 b.c. on P. Scipio Nasica : (judi- 
caverunt eum esse) virum bonorum optimum. consol 
censor. Notice the retention of n before s in contrast 
with cosentiont v. 1 and of cosol cesor of No. 24. The 
uncertainty about the spelling of such words is seen also 
in cofeci and confice of No. 7 b. fuet. On e see § 8. 



The Beginning of Literature. 41 

hSc. The PronQ^un is here emphatic, and retains the 
form unweakened by loss of accent (§ 14), while in v. 4 
it has the unaccented form hie. Corsica(m) Aleria(m)que 
urbe(m) ^ Corsica and Aleria its chief town.' 

This campaign of Scipio's is mentioned by several 
historians, e.g. Livy, Epit. 17, L, Cornelms consul in 
Sardinia et Corsica contra Sardos et Corsos et Hannonem 
Poenorum ducem feliciter pugnavit. Aleria is the Eoman 
form of the Greek name 'AXaXta with l-r for l-l (Hist. 
Gram. ch. ii. § 8 ; B. Ajop. § 99) and with Vowel-weaken- 
ing in the second syllable, § 2. 

meretod. On e in the second syllable see § 14; and 
on the Abl. -d, § 10. 

XXVI. Epitaph of L. Cornelius Scipio Barbatus; 
consul 298 b.c. (C.LL. i. 30.) 

Oornelius Lucius Scipio Barbatus 

Gnaiuod patre prognatus fortis uir sapiensque 

quoius forma uirtutei parisuma fuit 

consol censor aidilis quel fuit apud uos 

Taurasia Oisauna Samnio cepit 

subigit omne Loucanam opsidesque abdouoit.^ 

Cornelius Lucius Scipio Barbatus, 
Gnaeo patre prognatus fortis vir sapiensque, 
cujus forma virtuti parissima fuit, 
consul, censor, aedilis qui fait apud vos, 
Taurasiam, Cisaunam, Samnium cepit, 
subigit omnem Lucanam obsidesque abducit. 

1 It is possible that abdoucit has been corrected to abdoucsit 
(abduxit) on the stone. 



42 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

In the first line we seem to have left the region of 
Early Latin and to find ourselves in the Classical Age, 
for 'OS has been replaced by -us in the termination of the 
Nom. Sg., on by u in the name Lucius. But traces of 
the earlier spelling remain in the other lines. Gnaiuod. 
The father's name is given in the antique form, though a 
still older spelling had the letter C instead of G (§ 8), 
whence the contraction, prevalent even in the Classical 
Age, Cn. for Giiaeus, like C. for Gaius. On the diph- 
thong ai see § 7 ; on the v^ lost in the Classical form 
Gnae(v)us, § 14; and on Abl. -d, § 19. patre is the 
Locative, originally pati^l (§ 10), which in the 3d Decl. 
usurped the place of the Ablative in Consonant Stems. 
On quoius see § 10, and on uirtutei § 3. parisuma. The 
Superlative of par is rare. We find it also in a line of 
Plautus (Cure 506): — 

eodem hercle vos pono et pare : parissumi estis hibus, 

along with two other rare forms, the verb pctro, -are, I 
make equal, I equate, and 0. Lat. hibus for Jiis Dat. Abl. 
Translate : " indeed I put you in the same box and count 
you alike : you are exactly like them.'^ quel with the 
weakened form of the diphthong, a form belonging to the 
unaccented use of the Eelative (§ 3), whereas in the Dvenos 
inscription (No. 2) we had the unweakened form quoi 
(written qoi). Samnio may be Abl., ^^ took T. and C. from 
Samnium," in which case one Ablative of the inscription, 
Gnaiuod, would have the old d-termination, while the other 
lacked it. But it may also be Accusative with omne sup- 
plied from the next line : omne Samnium, omnem Lucanam, 



The Beginning of Literature, 43 

Notice that final -m is dropped in this inscription when 
the next word begins with a consonant. 

Taurasia and Cisauna were apparently towns in 
Samnium. 

Loucanam, sc. terram. 

opsides. On the spelling ps see Hist, Gram, ch. ii. 
§ 10. Abdoucit. The u of Class. Lat. cluco represents 
the early diphthong eu^ which became in Latin ou 
(§ 7); for the Indo-European form of the verb was 
^deuco (Germ, ziehe, Goth, tiuha). 

XXYII. Epitaph on the son of Scipio Africanns Major. 
{CJ.L, I. 33.) 

quel apice insigne Dialis flaminis gesistei 
Mors perfecit tua nt essent omnia breuia 
honos fama uirtnsqne gloria atque ingenium 
quibns sei in longa licniset tibe utier nita 
facile facteis superases gloriam maiorum. 
qua re lubens te in gremin Scipio recipit 
terra Publi prognatum Public Oorneli, 

qui apicem^ insigne Dialis flaminis, gessisti. 
Mors perfecit tua ut essent omnia hrevia, 
honos, fama virtusque, gloria atque ingenium; 
quibus si in longa licuisset tibi uti vita, 
facile factis superasses gloriam majorum. 
quare libens te in gremium, Scipio, recipit 
terra, Publi, prognatum Publio, Corneli, 

I place this epitaph here in order to beep it beside the 
other Scipio Epitaphs, though it is probably a good deal 



44 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

later. It has few features of antiquity except the avoid- 
ance of writing a double consonant in gesistei^ licuiset, 
and superases (but essent). The diphthong ei^ quel (p. 42), 
gesistei; sei, facteis (§ 5), has not yet passed into i (§ 7). 
In tibe the e may be the old method of wjiting ei (§ 8), 
but is more likely to be e, a substitute for ^ (§ 21). 

The following ancient inscriptions from the grove of 
Pisaurum may find a place here, at the close of this 
section. They cannot be called pure Latin inscriptions, 
but represent rather the dialectal variety spoken in 
Picenum, with final s dropped even after a long vowel, 
and with clipped form of the 3d Plur. ending of Verbs. 
{C.LL. I, 167 sqq.) : — 

XXVIII. lunone re[gina] matrona Pisaurese dono dedrot. 
Junoni reginae matronae Pisaurenses dono 

dedencnt. 

matrona(s) is the dialectal Nom. Plur. of the 1st Deck, 
which in Latin was superseded by the Pronominal 
Plural in -ai (see my Hist. Gram. ch. iii. § 4). It drops 
final -s like Pisaurese (s). 

XXIX. Matre Matuta dono dedro matrona M'. Curia Pol^. 

Liuia deda. 

Matri Mdtutae dono dederunt matronae, M{ania) 
Curia Folia Livia dederunt. 

On the Dat. Matuta, see § 10. deda(nt) is some dia- 
lectal a-Preterite like Lat. ei^d-s, dabd-s, etc. (see my Hist. 
Oram. ch. vi. § 8). Like dedro(nt) it drops final -nt. 



The Beginning of Literature. 45 

XXX. (a) Deiu[os] Nouesede. 
(6) T. Popaio Pop. f. 

(a) Divi Novensiles, 

(b) T. Poppaeiis Pub (lit) j, 

Deiuos is Kom. Plur. (with, the dialectal ending -os) like 
Noues§de(s). The latter shews -es- for -ens- (§ 22). 

The inscription on the Columna Eostrata also deserves 
a place here. For though in its present form it is a 
restoration made at the time of the Emperor Claudius, 
it doubtless retains a great deal of the old inscription, 
and is appealed to by Quintilian as evidence of Early 
Latin (Inst. i. 7. 12, Latinis veteribus ^d' plurimis in 
verbis adjectum ultimum, quod manifestum est etiam 
ex columna rostrata, quae est Duellio in foro posita). 
A good deal of it is lost. (C.I.L. i. 195): — 

XXXI. . . , nouem castreis exfociont Macelamque . . . 
pucnandod cepit enque eodem macistratud . . . rem nauebos 
marid consol primos . . . clasesque nauales primos ornanet 
. . . cumque eis nauebos claseis Poenicas omnis . . . maxu- 
mas copias Oartaciniensis praesented . . . dictatored olorom 
inaltod marid pucnandod . . . uiqiie naneis cepet cum socieis 
septeresmom . . . triresmosque naneis . . . qnoqne nanaled 
praedad poplom, etc. 

[^post dies'] novem castris effugiunt Macellamqiie [-vi] 
pugnando cepit^ inque eodem magistratu [bene'] rem navibus 
mari consul primus \_gessit], classesque navales primus orna- 
vit \_paravitque], cumque eis navibus classes Punicas omnes, 
[item] maximas copias Carthaginienses praesente (i.e. im- 



46 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions, 

perante) \_Hannihale] dictatore illorum in alto mart pug- 
nando [yicit], vique naves cepit cum sociis, septiremem 
[unam quinqiteremesque] triremesque naves , . . . \_primus'\ 
quoque navali praeda popuhcm J[donavit^, etc. 

Archaic features of the above are the use throughout 
of the letter C both for the sound c and the sound g, the 
expression of double consonants by single, the Abl. 
ending -d in altod, marid, pucnandod, etc., the use of -que 
for ^ and ^ to the exclusion of et Q also '), the literal sense 
of prae-sented ' being in command/ the employment of o, 
e for the classical u, i, in -out 3d Plur. -bos Abl. Plur., -os 
Nom. Sg., -rom Gen. Plur., en Prep. ; also of ei for class. I 
in castreis, socieis, and so on. But pseudo-archaisms are 
interspersed, e.g. exfociont for exfuciont (with Indo- 
European u; cf. Gk. €c{)vyov), dictatored (cf. praesented) 
for dictatore (-ri) or dictatorld (§ 10). The termination of 
praedad is antique, but not the diphthong, which should 
be ai (§ 7) (cf. praesented). 

Macella was a town in Sicily. The only instance of a 
Gen. Plur. of the 2d Decl. is olorom (i.e. oUorom), illorum, 
where the ending -orom is quite in place, the word being 
a Pronoun (p. 40). inaltod. Notice the writing of the 
Prep, along with its Adj. (cf. p. 32). septeresmom . . . 
triresmosque. The esm (class, em, § 22) is the ancient 
spelling; but whether the use of the Masc. form be a 
genuine ancient construction or an imitation of the 
Greek, is difficult to say. On poplom cf. No. 4 d. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PERIOD OP THE REPUBLICAN LITERATURE. 

16. The reduction of Diphthongs, even in the accented 
syllable, was steadily carried on throughout this period. 
Ai became ae about the beginning of the second century, 
though the older form is often retained, especially in state 
inscriptions, laws, and the like. Ei did not wholly sink 
to I till about 160 e.g. On inscriptions previous to that 
time, such as the S. C. de Bacchanalibus (No. 37), a 
state inscription, and therefore carefully written, we find 
ei kept clearly separate from i. The old expression of 
the diphthong ei by the letter e (§ 8) went out of use 
about the end of the third century e.g. Oic began to 
be pronounced and spelled u about the same time, though 
this older spelling, too, is retained in laws and inscrip- 
tions of a ceremonious character. Oi became oe, as ai 
became ae, and passed in pronunciation into a simple 
vowel-sound, written u, about the beginning of the second 
century. (For these and other changes see my Hist Gram, 
ch. X. § 11.) 

17. A result of the weakening of the diphthong ei 
to the sound i was that the long vowel i was often 
written ei for the sake of distinction from ^ (e.g. No. 
44). This practice came in about the middle of the 

47 



48 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

second century and remained till the beginning of the 
Empire ; though from the time of Sulla i is usually indi- 
cated by a tall form of the letter, e.g. M EN DiCVS. The 
poet Accius (died c. 90 b.c.) introduced the practice of 
expressing the length of other vowels by writing them 
double, e.g. PAASTORES, SEEDEM, a practice which 
was retained for some time after his death. The doub- 
ling of consonants in writing had been previously brought 
into fashion by the poet Ennius, and continued ever 
afterwards to be the regular usage of Latin spelling. 

18. Another affection that the language suffered in 
the course of this period was the shortening of certain 
long vowels when final or when preceding certain final 
consonants. Before final -m a long vowel had been 
shortened even earlier. The -dm (Gk. -wv) of the Gen. 
Plur. had become -dm, which, being an unaccented 
syllable, was reduced to -um. And final -a had been 
shortened before the beginning of Eoman literature in 
the Nom. Sg. of the 1st DecL, etc. In no extant Latin 
poetry is there any certain trace of the original quantity 
terra, etc. (cf. Gk. x^P^)- I^ong vowels in final syllables 
were most readily shortened by Eoman lips in iambic 
words, e.g. fuga (Gk. ^1^777, ^i^yd), where the short but 
accented first syllable exercised a shortening effect on 
the following long syllable. This law of Latin pronun- 
ciation is known as the Law of Breves Breviantes (Hist. 
Gram. ch. ii. § 16). So w^e may suppose that the 
shortening of final -a began with iambic words like fuga, 
and from them gradually extended to all Nominatives 
of the 1st Decl. Plautus, whose poetry follows the 



Republican Period. 49 

ordinary, everyday pronunciation of actual life, usually 
employs shortened forms like cave, abi, etc., especially 
of such words as would be rapidly uttered in discourse, 
e.g. Adverbs like 7nodo, probe (cf. Class. Lat. 7nale, bene, 
never male, bene). At a later period the shortening of 
final -0 was extended from words of Iambic form, e.g. 
eo, voco, ddbo, to all words, in precisely the same fashion 
as the shortening of -a had been effected in the third 
century b.c. But this shortening of -o was not fully 
accomplished till the Empire ; cf . esto, etc., in Ovid. 

This shortening of long vowels when final or when 
preceding a final consonant was another result of the 
Latin stress accentuation (§ 1). The final syllable being 
unaccented did not get its full and proper utterance. 
But the shortening was often aided by the character of 
the final consonant before which it stood. We ourselves 
find it difficult to give a vowel the same^ lengthened pro- 
nunciation before a final t as before a final d. We do 
not make the o of ' note ' so long as the o of ^ node.^ To 
a Eoman, too, final t exercised a shortening influence 
over a preceding long vowel ; and by about the middle 
of the second century b.c. (posterior, that is to say, to 
the time of Plautus) we find the pronunciation estab- 
lished of terret for older teiTet (cf. terres), curat for older 
curat (cf. curds), etc. Slightly later came the shortening 
of long vowels before final r, e.g. cui^er for older curer 
(cf. cureris), calcdr from older calcdr (originally calcdre, 
sc. ferrum ^the iron attached to the heel'), orator for 
older orator (cf. oratoris, Gk. pyjrayp). L had the same 
shortening effect as r, as we see from tribunal from 



50 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions, 

tribundl(e), etc. That these consonants^ however, did 
not produce this result wholly of themselves, but were 
helped by the unaccented nature of the final syllable, we 
can see from monosyllables like par, sol, which being 
accented retain the long quantity. 

19. Stress-accentuation must also have had something 
to do with an earlier phonetic change, the loss of final d 
after a long vowel, which took place about the beginning 
of the literary period. The Latin Abl. Sg. originally 
ended in d, e.g. terrad, dolod, etc. ; and in the elevated 
poetry of Livius Andronicus and ISTaevius there are traces 
of the older form of Abl. Thus a Saturnian line of 
Naevius has the Abl. Troidd ' from Troy ' : — 

noctu Troiad exibant || capitibus opertis, 

^they passed from Troy in the night, veiling their heads.' 
But there is probably no trace of it in Plautus, certainly 
none in his dialogue verses. On the S. C. de Bacchanali- 
bus (No. 37) of 186 e.g., two years before the death of 
Plautus, it is invariably written, a practice quite in 
keeping with the archaic orthography of a state decree. 
On the earlier and less formal edict of Aemilius Paulus 
(No. 34) it is not found. By this loss of final d after a 
long vowel the Abl. Sg. of the Declensions came to 
end in -a, -o, -z, -u, -e, instead of -dd, -od, -id, -ud, -ed. 
Such Adverbs as were originally Ablative were similarly 
affected, e.g. suprd{d), extrd(d), porroid), facillime(d). 
And -tod, -ntod of the 3d Sg. and 3d Plur. Imperat. were 
reduced to -to, -nto, e.g. esto, sunto. Monosyllables like 
the Ace. and Abl. of the Personal Pronouns med, ted, sed. 



Republican Period. 51 

retained their d longer, though the d has quite disap- 
peared by the middle of the second century. On the 
other hand, hand, which in early literature appears as 
haud before an initial vowel and hau before an initial con- 
sonant (cf. our ^an' and ^a'), e.g. haud ignoro, hau sdo, 
managed to retain its final d in the classical language. 

20. The weak sound of a final consonant and its 
liability to be affected by a following initial consonant 
is reflected in the interchange which we find on inscrip- 
tions of all xDcriods between final t and final d. The pro- 
nunciation would doubtless be, for example, at templum, 
etc., but ad delubrum, etc. ; and in consequence we find 
the Prep, sometimes written at, sometimes ad (cf. a2nit 
and apudf set and sed) ; while in carelessly written in- 
scriptions a final 4 is often dropped, e.g. dede for dedet 
(= dedeit), class, dedit (No. 23). Final -m had a very 
weak pronunciation, shewing its presence, in fact, only 
in the nasal sound given to the preceding vowel, so that 
-om would have in Latin a sound like French ^ on.' It is 
omitted again and again on the oldest, as on the Post- 
classical inscriptions. Final -s after a short vowel is 
scarcely allowed in the early poetry to give length by 
' position ' to its syllable when the next word begins with 
a consonant. Even Catullus in one epigram scans tu 
ddbls supplicium, a scansion which we generally indicate 
by substituting an apostrophe for the s : tu dabi^ suppli- 
cium. Cicero tells us that in his time the failure to give 
clear enunciation to a final s had come to be considered 
subrusticum ; and this corrected pronunciation seems to 
have found its way into Vulgar Latin too, for the Romance 



52 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions, 

languages shew traces of a final -5, e.g. Fr. sommes from 
Lat. sumus, 

21. Final vowels, too, suffered from the stress on the 
initial syllable of the word. A final e (which often has 
taken the place of a final t, e.g. t7'iste for ^tristl, mite for 
^miti; contrast G-k. I'Spt, Neut. of I-stem) came to be 
dropped, especially in words which were in ordinary 
utterance closely joined with a following word; thus 
neque became nee, atque became ac (for ^^atc), the Im- 
peratives dice, dicce, face became die, due, fac, etc. See 
my Hist. Gram. ch. ii. § 12. 

22. Another change accomplished at this period is the 
change of v6- to ve-, e.g. versus for vorsus, vester for vaster. 
Scipio Africanus Minor is said to have brought in the 
new fashion. Another was the loss of g in the initial 
group gn, e.g. natiis for gnatiis, which reminds us of our 
own loss of k in kn-, e.g. know (pronounced like ^no^), 
knee, etc. Plautus and Terence seem to use the spelling 
gnatus for the Noun, natus for the Participle. 

The loss of s, with compensatory lengthening, before 
a voiced consonant was of earlier date, e.g. dumus for 
dusmus (Liv. Andr. has dusmo (Adj.) in loco, ^in a bushy 
place ^), Idem for is-dem (Cicero mentions this latter spell- 
ing. There was a similar treatment of x (= cs), e.g. edico 
for ex-dico. But in these compounds the original form 
was often restored from a sense of their etymology. 

Similarly n, which was in pronunciation dropped before 
s, /, with lengthening of the vowel, was usually restored 
in the standard orthography, at least of Classical Latin; 
e.g. consulo, pronounced cosulo, probably with nasalized o. 



Republican Period. 53 

{A) Earlier Part. 

This part is marked by the dropping of final d after 
a long vowel in writing, as it had been already dropped 
in pronunciation, and by the introduction of the double 
writing of double consonants. 

XXXII. The Spoletium Inscription (a notice hung up 
in a sacred grove at Spoletium in Umbria). (G.I.L. xi. 
4766.) 

honce loncom nequis uiolatod neque exuehito neque exferto 
quod louci siet neque cedito nesei quo die res deina anua fiet. 
eod die quod reidinai causa fiat sine dolo cedere licetod. seiquis 
uiolasit loue bouid piaclum dated, seiquis scies uiolasit dolo 
malo louei bouid piaclum dated et a. 000 moltai suntod. eius 
piacli moltaique dicatore exaotio estod. 

hunc lucum nequis violato neque eveJiito neqtie efferto 
quod luci sit neque caedito, nisi quo die res divina annua 
fiet. Eo die quod rei divinae causa fiat sine dolo caedere 
liceto. Siquis violassit (violaverit)^ Jovi hove piaculum 
dato, Siquis sciens violassit (violaverit) dolo malo, Jovi 
hove piaculum dato et a(eris) CCC multae sunto. Ejus 
piaculi midtaeque dicatori (?) exactio esto. 

Here final -d after a long vowel is sometimes written, 
sometimes dropped, with no apparent method. Double 
consonants are still written single, e.g. anua, uiolasit. 
One form is dialectal and not genuine Latin, viz. cedere 
instead of caidere; for in the Umbrian dialect of Latin 
ae was already pronounced e, a pronunciation which in 
time affected the Latin of the capital and of the whole 
Koman world. (See the last section of this book.) 



54 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions, 

honce. The full form is suitable to a solemn notice of 
this kind, though in actual talk the final e would be 
always dropped (§ 21). On 6 for Class. Lat. u, see § 14. 

uiolatod. This Imperative ending -tod is said to have 
been originally the Abl. Sg. of the Demonstrative 
Pronoun, ^tod, meaning ' from that/ ' thereupon. ' 
Hence the use of this form for the 2d Sg. Put. 
Imperat., e.g. Hor. (7. iii. 14. 23: 

si per invisum mora janitorem 
fiet, abito, 

ahito, originally ahi-tod, meaning ' depart thereupon.' 

louci must be Gen. of Possession, ^what belongs to the 
grove.' The Locative ^in the grove' (cf. liumi, 
Corinthi) would at this early time be spelled loucei. 

siet {Hist. Gram. vi. 13), a common form in Plautus, 
is almost an exact counterpart of the Greek dr], 
which represents an original i((T)Lrj(T). The Indo- 
European Optative Act. of Athematic Verbs shewed 
ie in the Sg., i in the Plur. 0. Latin sies and sUis 
retain this old distinction; but in time the i of the 
Plur. encroached on the Sg. too, and so in Class. Lat. 
sim, siSj sit replace siem^ sies, siet. 

ngsei is the older form of ni-si (ni-si), in which the e 
has become l through Vowel-weakening in this unac- 
cented word (§ 14), and ei has become i. (Cf. p. 20 
on noisi of the Dvenos inscription.) 

res deina. lies divina, the common Latin phrase for a sacri- 
fice, has this disyllabic form of the Adj. also in Plautus: 

quae dum rem dinam faceret cantaret mihi, 



Repxihlican Period. 65 

a shortening due to the Latin tendency to pronounce 
Ivl as I (cf. sis for si vis). The form of the phrase 
on its recurrence in this inscription is interesting, 
reidinai. for it indicates that res divina in pronuncia- 
tion made one word like respuhlica, etc. See my Hist. 
Gram. ch. ii. § 11. 

sei, class, si, was originally a Locative Sg. of the Pronoun 
stem so- -that/* lit. ^in that (case).' (Hist. Gram. ch. 
ix. § 13.) On the termination of loue, see § 8 (contrast 
louei, below). 

bouid. Bov- is really a Consonant-stem and not an 
I-stem. as we see from its Gen. Plur, bo('c)-ir/n not bovi- 
um. But it here shews the Lstem Abl. ending -id 
(§ 10). This form adds a fresh illustration of the con- 
fusion of Consonant and I-stems of the 3d Decl. {Hist. 
Gram. ch. iii. § 8. The Consonant-stems properly used 
for their Ablative the Locative Case, which ended 
in -?, later -e. so that we should expect to find here 
bovi. or rather hove (§ 21). 

piaclum. The -clurii of piaclum and similar words, origi- 
nally -tlom., is a quite different termination from the 
Diminutive -cuius, -culum of puer-culiis^ mel-cidum. etc.. 
which was originally -co-Ids, -co-Iom. But the tendency 
in pronunciation to facilitate the pronunciation of -ch'/m 
by means of a parasitic vowel assimilated the two 
endings, so that Class. Lat. piacidum seems to have 
the same termination as a Diminutive like niel-culum 
(cf. popio- Xo. 4, pocolom Xo. 5. and see my Hist. 
Gram. ch. ii. § 12; B. App. § 91). 

scies. On the dropping of n before s, see § 22. 



66 Handhooh of Latin Inscriptions, 

uiolasit. The 0. Lat. Verb-forms in -assim, -essim, etc.^ 
e.g. amassim, proJiibessim, are really Optatives of the 
same Tense of which forms in -asso, etc., e.g. amassoj 
are Subjunctives (with Future meaning, Hist. Gram, 
ch. vi. § 13). The Optative sense is the usual one with 
the forms in -sm. Thus bene sponsis heneque volueris 
was a formula of frequent use in the Augural prayer ; 
another early prayer shews Juppiter prohibessis scelus, 
etc.j etc. But they have also, as here, a conditional 
sense. In the classical language they were replaced 
in their Optative use by the Pres. Subj., and by the 
Perf. Subj. in their Conditional use. See my Hist. 
Gram. ch. vi. § 13. 

dicatore (on this Dat. Sg. ending see § 8) may be a mis- 
writing for dictatore. But it is possible that the Verb 
dicare (cf. indicare) had a Verbal Noun dicator. 

Beside this we may put another inscription of the 
same purport, though more influenced by dialectal forms, 
and possibly of an earlier date : — 

XXXIII. The Luceria Inscription, from Luceria in 
Apulia, on the borders of the Oscan Samnium. (Eph. 
Epigr. ii. 298.) 

in hoce loucarid stircus neqnis fundatid neue cadauer 
proiecitad neue parentatid. seiqnis arnorsu hac faxit in ium 
qnis uolet pro iondicatod n. L. manum iniectio estod. seine 
magisteratns nolet moltare licetod. 

in hoc lucari (luco) stercus nequis fundet neve cadaver 
proiciat neve parentet. Siquis adversum hac fecerit, in 



Republican Period, 57 

eum quisqids volet projudicato. N{umnium) L manum 
injectlo esto. Sive magistratas volet multare, liceto. 

The curious Verb-forms fundatid, proiecitad^ and paren- 
tatid are dialectal. They remind us of the Oscan forms 
with t or tt corresponding to Latin 5s; so that fundatid, 
parentatid might be in genuine Latin /imc^assz^ and pa ?'e?i- 
tassitf while proiecitad might correspond to a suppositious 
projecissat, like incipissat. Dialectal^ too, is the i of stir- 
cus and the parasitic vowel of magisteratus (cf. No. 15). 
Indications of the date of the inscription are hoce for 
liocee (originally liod-ce, § 10), Avith single consonant 
written for double, in and iniectdo with e weakened to i, 
Notice the omission of final m in aruorsu(m), and the 
spelling ium for eum. Points of grammar that require 
comment are (1) the Adverbial group aruorsu(m) hac 
with the Abl. Sg. Fern, of the Pronoun, like praeter hac, 
praetered, etc. (cf . aruorsum ead, No. 37) ; (2) the Ace. 
manum governed by the Verbal Noun iniectio, like 
Plautus' quid tibi hanc tactio est 9 ^what do you mean 
by touching this lady?' On the form ar- for ad- in 
aruorsu(m) see Hist. Gram. ch. ii. § 8. 

XXXIV. Decree of Aemilius Paulus, found in Spain. 
(189 B.C.) {C.I.L. II. 5041.) 

L. Aimilius L. f. inpeirator decreiuit utei qnei Hastensium 
seniei in turri Lascutana habitarent leiberei essent agrum 
oppidumque quod ea tempestate posedisent item possidere 
habereque ionsit dum poplus senatusque Romanus uellet. 
Act. in castreis a.d. xii K. Febr, 



58 Handbook of Latin InsoHptions, 

L. Aemilius L, /. imperator decrevit uti qui Hastensium 
servi in turri Lascutana habitarent liberi essent: agrum 
oppidumqiie quod ea tempestate possedissent item pos- 
sidere habereque jussit dum populus senatusque Romamis 
vellet. Act(itm) in castris a(nte) d(iem) xii K(alendas) 
Febr(uarias). 

The discovery of this inscription upset Eitschl's theory 
that final -d after a long vowel was still pronounced in 
the time of Plautus. Eelying on the fact that d in the 
Abl. Sg. and 3d Sg. Imperat. is unfailingly written 
throughout the Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus, a 
decree of 186 b.c, two years before the death of Plautus, 
Eitschl argued that the d must have been still pro- 
nounced in these forms in the language of Plautus' day, 
and that when an Abl. is followed by a word begin- 
ning with a vowel in a line of Plautus there was not 
necessarily hiatus. The discovery, however, of this 
decree of Aemilius Paulus, with its omission of Abl. -d, 
shews that the retention of the letter on the Senatorial 
Decree is a mere piece of conservative spelling. Since a 
change in spelling always lags behind a change in pro- 
nunciation, there is every reason to believe that in the 
ordinary everyday talk of Plautus' time Ablatives like 
terra, puero, or Imperatives like esto, abito, were pro- 
nounced without any final consonant. 

The inscription is also interesting in exhibiting the in- 
coming fashion of writing double a double consonant. 
We have, e.g. posedisent close to possidere. The curious 
ei of inpeirator and decreiuit seems to express the same 



Republican Period. 59 

sound, viz. close e. The old diphthong is still retained in 
Aimilius and iousit (on which see Is'o. 37). 

To the same year belongs an inscription of M. Fulvius 
Nobilior, the patron of the poet Ennius. (C.LL, i. 534.) 

XXXV. M. Fuluius M. f. Ser. n. cos. Aetolia cepit. 

M, Fulvius M. f. Ser, n{epos) co(7i)s(uT) ex 
Aetolia cepit 

Here Aetolia, if it be the Abl. as Hinnad of Xo, 20 
indicates, lacks the old final d, like turri, Lascutana, ea 
of the last inscription. 

Two years later is a milestone with the name of M. 
Aemilius Lepidus, the projector of the Via Aemilia, 
found near Bologna; 187 B.C. (C.LL. i. 535.) 

XXXVI. M. Aemilius M. f. M. n. Lepidus cos. 

cc± . XIIX 

M. Aemilius M, /. M. n{epos) Lepidus 
co(ii)s(id), 

CCLXVIII 

The figures give the number of miles between Eome 
and Bononia (now Bologna). Notice the modern form 
of the diphthong ai in the name Aemilius (§ 16). 

Other milestones from the Via Aemilia of the same 
date shew the same form of the name. 

XXXVII. The Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus, 
186 B.C. On a bronze tablet affixed to the wall of a 
temple in South Italy. (G.I.L, i. 196.) 



60 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions, 

Q. Marcius L. f. S. Postumms L. f. cos. senatum con- 
solnerunt N. Octob. apud aedem Duelonai. Sc. arf. M. Olandi 
M. f. L. Valeri P. f. Q. Minuci 0. f, De Bacanalibus quel 
foideratei esent ita exdeicendum censuere. Neiquis eorum 
Bacanal habuise uelet. Seiques esent quel sibei deicerent 
necesiis ese Bacanal habere eeis utei ad pr. urbannm Eomam 
uenirent deque eeis rebus ubei eorum verba audita esent utei 
senatus noster decerneret dum ne minus senatoribus adesent 
quom ea res cosoleretur. Bacas uir nequis adiese uelet ceiuis 
Eomanus neue nominus Latini neue socium quisquam nisei 
pr. urbanum adiesent isque de senatuos sententiad dum ne 
minus senatoribus G adesent quom ea res cosoleretur iousiset. 
Censuere. Saxerdos nequis uir eset. Magister neque uir 
neque mulier quisquam eset. Neue pecuniam quisquam 
eorum comoinem habuise uelet neue magistratum neue pro 
magistratud neque uirum neque mulierem quisquam fecise 
uelet. Neue post hac inter sed coniourase neue comuouise 
neue conspondise neue conpromesise uelet neue quisquam 
fidem inter sed dedise uelet. Sacra; in oquoltod ne quisquam 
fecise uelet neue in poplicod neue in preiuatod neue exstrad 
urbem sacra quisquam fecise uelet nisei pr. urbanum adieset 
isque de senatuos sententiad dum ne minus senatoribus 
adesent quom ea res cosoleretur iousiset. Censuere. Homines 
pious V oinuorsei uirei atque mulieres sacra ne quisquam 
fecise uelet neue inter ibei uirei pious duobus mulieribus 
pious tribus arfuise uelent nisei de pr. urbani senatuosque 
sententiad utei suprad scriptum est. Haice utei in couen- 
tionid exdeicatis ne minus trinum noundinum senatuosque 
sententiam utei scientes esetis. Eorum sententia ita fuit sei 
ques esent quel aruorsum ead fecisent quam suprad scriptum 



Repuhlican Period. 61 

est eeis rem caputalem faciendam censuere. Atque utei hoce 
in tabolam ahenam inceideretis ita senatus aiquom censuit 
iiteique earn figier ioubeatis nbei faciliimed gnoscier potisit 
atque utei ea Bacanalia sei qua sunt exstrad quam sei quid 
ibei sacri est ita utei suprad scriptum est in diebus X 
quibus uobeis tabelai datai erunt faciatis utei dismota sient. 

Q. Marcius L, f., S(purms) Postumms L, f, cons, 
senatum consuluenint JS/'(onis) Octob. cqmd aedem Bellonae. 
Sc(rlbendo) adf(uerunt) M. Claudius M, /., L. Valerius P. 
f., Q. Minucius C. /. De Bacchanalibus quifoederati essent 
ita edicendum censuere. Nequis eorum Bacchanal liabuisse 
vellet. Siqui essent qui sibi dicerent necesse esse Bacchancd 
habere, ei uti ad prictetorem) urbanum Romam venirent, 
deque eis rebus, ubi eorum verba audita essent, uti senatus 
noster decerneret, duni ne minus senatoribus C adessent 
quum ea res consuleretur. Bacchas vir nequis adiisse vellet 
civis Romanus, neve nominis Latini, neve sociorum quis- 
quam, nisi pr(ctetorem) urbanum^adiissent, isque de sencUus 
sententia, dum ne minus senatoribus C adessent quum ea 
res consuleretur, jussisset. Censuere. Sacerdos nequis vir 
esset. Magister neque vir neque mulier quaequam esset: 
neve pecuniam quisqucun eorum conimunem habuisse vellet, 
neve magistratuni, neve pro magistratii neque virum neque 
muliereni quisquani fecisse vellet. Neve posthac inter se 
conjurasse neve convovisse, neve conspondisse, neve com- 
promisisse vellet, neve quisquani fidem inter se dedisse vellet. 
Sacra in occulto ne quisquani fecisse vellet, neve in publico, 
neve in privato, neve extra urbem sacra quisquani fecisse 
vellet, nisi pr(ctetorem) urbanum adiisset, isque de senatus 



62 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

sententia, dum ne mimes senatoribus O adessent qiium ea 
res consuleretur, jussisset. Censuere. Homines plus V 
universi, viri atque mulieres, sacra ne qidsquam fecisse 
vellet, neve interibi viri plus duobus, mulieribus plus tribus, 
adfuisse vellent, nisi de pr(aetoris) urbani senatusque sen- 
tentia, uti supra scriptum est. Haec uti in contione edicatis 
ne minus trinum nundinum, senatusque sententiam uti 
scientes essetis. Eorum sententia ita fuit : siqui essent qui 
adversum ea fecissent, quam supra scriptum est, eis rem 
capitaleni faciendam censuere. Atque iiti hoc in tabulam 
ahenam incideretis: ita senatus aequum censuit; Utique 
eam jigi jubeatis, ubi facillime nosci possit; atque uti ea 
Bacchanalia, siqua sunt, extra quam siquid ibi sacri est, in 
diebus X, quibus vobis tabellae datae erunt, faciatis Uti 
dimota sint. 

This is a copy of the ^senatus vetus auctoritas de 
Bacchanalibus ' mentioned by Cicero (Legg. ii. 15^ 37). 
Livy (xxxix. 14. 7; cf. 17. 4) tells us that in 186 B.C. 
the senate determined ' edici in urbe Eoma et per totam 
Italiam edicta mitti, ne qnis qui Bacchis initiatus esset 
coisse aut convenisse causa sacrorum velit neu quid talis 
rei divinae fecisse.' This inscription is two years earlier 
than the death of Plautus (184 b.c), in whose comedies 
we have more than one allusion to the Bacchanalian 
orgies and the disfavour in which they were coming 
to be held by the government (e.g. Aul. 408^ Bacch. 53, 
Mil. 858, 1016, Cas. 980, nam ecastor nunc Bacchae 
nullae ludunt). So that this precious record of antiquity 
transports us into the very time of Plautus and Ennius, 



Republican Period, 63 

and gives us a glimpse of the language as it was spoken, 
or at least written, at the beginning of the second cen- 
tury B.C. Being a formal state document, its forms will 
rather be those of a previous generation than the actual 
colloquial forms of the speech of the day (on final -d 
of Ablatives, etc., see § 19). 

The older 6 appears instead of the later u in consolue- 
nint, cosoleretur, etc. Diphthongs remain in their earlier 
shape, e.g. Duelonai, aiquom, etc. ; in particular, the dis- 
tinction between diphthongal ei and simple i is observed 
in deicerent, beside uenirent, etc. Double consonants, 
though doubtless pronounced double, are written single, 
the practice of writing them double being a reform of 
the poet Ennius (§ 17). 

Duelonai, class. Bellonae. On clu-, class, h- (cf. duomis 
and bonus, dids and bis), see my Hist. Gram. ch. x. § 13; 
B. App. § 104. 2 c ; duellum, the precursor of bellum, 
was a disyllabic word, as it is in Plautus. Horace's 
duellum (3 syll.) has been called a pseudo-archaism. 

Bacanalibus, class. BaccJiancdibus. The use of h with a 
mute to represent the Greek aspirates was not known 
till the close of the Eepublic. 

quel, originally the unaccented form (§ 5), qitoi being the 
accented. In foideratei, originally foideratoi, the dif- 
ference between the accented and unaccented diph- 
thong is exemplified. 

neiquis. Nei, later ni, is the 0. Lat. Prohibitive Particle, 
used by Virgil ^ antiquitatis amans ' in A. iii. 686 : ni 
teneant cursus. 



64 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

Bacanal, class. Bacchanal. The final e has already been 
dropped (§ 21), but the a of the last syllable probably 
still retained its long quantity (§ 18) ; cf. Plant. Aul. 
413 aperitur Bacchanal : adest. 

uelet is class, vellet; not velit, which has I. -Eur. i in the 
last syllable, and which would be written uelit on an 
inscription of this date. 

ques. The distinction between the I-stem qui- (Interrog., 
Indef.) and the 0-stem quo- (Eelative) is retained in 
Class. Lat. in the Ace. Sg. Neut., quid (Interrog., 
Indef.) beside quod (Eel.), but in early Latin was 
kept up in other cases too, such as the ISTom. Plur. 
Cato's Origines began with the words : siques homines 
sunt, quos delectat populi E-omani gesta describere. 

necesus is said to be a Neuter Noun like opus^ genus. 
But its exact relation to the form necesse (used by 
Plautus), and indeed the precise composition of this 
latter form, are doubtful. 

eeis. The Demonstrative Pronouns often added to the 
-ei (class, -i) of their Nom. Plur. Masc. the -s which was 
the Plur. ending of Nouns. Plautus affects these forms 
when the Particle -ce is added, his-ce, illis-ce, etc, ; Virgil 
is said to have used the archaic his in Eel. iii. 102: — 

his certe, neque amor causa est, vix ossibus haerent. 

cosoleretur. On the absence of n see § 22. 

adiesent, class, adiissent. For li we usually find ie in 
Latin, e.g. societas, laniena, beside caritas, officina. 
But the e of conpromesise below suggests that this e is 
a relic of the old use of e for the diphthong-sound ei. 



Rejjuhlican Period, 65 

nominus. The I. -Eur. Gen. Sg. of Consonant (3d Decl.) 
Stems ended either in -os, or -6s. The Greeks adopted 
the first ending, the Romans the second (§ 10), though 
in early Latin we find isolated relics of the other form, 
a form which may have been long in use in the ple- 
beian speech. 

socium. Gen. PI. (§ 10). 

senatuos. On this 4th Decl. Gen., see my Latin Lan- 
guage, ch. vi. § 21. 

iousiset. Apparently the first syllable of the Perfect of 
jubeo contained a diphthong originally, so that Class. 
Lat. jussi has taken the place of a discarded jusi. We 
even find a diphthong in the Present tense, in early 
Latin (see ioubeatis, below). This indicates that there 
may have been two rival stems, iiib- and loub-, to 
which the confusion of quantity has been due. 

magister was both Masc. and Fem. in early Latin, like 
picer; cf. Naevius, Bell. Pun. ii. (a Saturnian line): — 

prima incedit Cereris Proserpina puer. 

conpromesise, see above on adiesent. 

oquoltod. The I.-Eur. root kel-, to hide, began with k, 
not q. The spelling here shews that quo and co 
had come to have the same sound in Latin, and so 
were interchanged. Similarly, the Prep, cum (I.-Eur. 
kom) is often written quorn in early Latin (e.g. No. 
45). 

poplicod. This curious spelling pojol- is usually referred 
to a confusion between puhlicus (from pubes, long u 
and b) smd populus (with short o s.ndp). 



66 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

extrad. These Adverbs in -a were originally Abl. Sg. 
Fern, (see my Hist, Gram. ch. vii. § 4), and so appear 
in early Latin inscriptions with a final -d (§ 19). 

pious. One would expect plots {Hist. Gram. ch. iv. § 3). 
Some compare the ending of min-us; but ou is more 
probably a mere spelling of the sound u (§ 16). 

oinuorsei is merely a way of writing oinu-uorsei, and was 
doubtless pronounced as a quadrisyllable. Before v 
the weakened vowel remains u and does not sink to ^ 
as in class, iini-versi. On vo- for class, ve-, see § 22. 

arfuise, class, adfuisse. On the curious usage at this 
time of writing (and pronouncing) r for d before / 
and V, see my Hist. Gram. ch. ii. § 8. This peculiar- 
ity of Old Latin was preserved in the legal formula 
SCR • ARF.^ scrihendo arfuerunt. 

couentionid. Contio was originally co{myuentio, as nun- 
tius was originally noventius (from novus). Why coii- 
tio should have o and niintius the vowel u is not clear. 
Possibly the m of com- made the difference. This is 
the I-stem Ablative ending -ul, quite different from the 
Consonant-stem Locative ending (used as Abl.) -l^ later 
-e (§ 10). 

noundinum, class, nundinum, a Gen. Plur. (cf. socium, 
above)^ which came to be used as Neut. Sg. nundinum, 
4, It is derived from novem and dm-, a by-stem of 
dies, a day. On ou for earlier ove cf. the remarks 
above on the vocalism of contio and nuntius, 

scientes esetis. This use of the Pres. Part, with the Sub- 
stantive Verb is found in Plautus too, e.g. Poen, 1038. 

aruorsum. See on arfuise, above. 



Republican Period, 67 

ead shews that in praeter-ea, propter-ea, etc.^ ea is an Abl. 
Sg. Fein. Cf. praeter-hac, post-hac, etc., and aruorsu 
hac (No. 33). 

suprad. See on exstrad, above. 

caputalem. The u has not sunk to i (cf. oinuorsei, above). 

hoce^ that is Jiocce (§ 17), from older Jiod-ce (§ 10). 

facUumed, class. faciUime. These Adverbs in -e were 
originally Ablatives. Possibly the 2d Decl. had in 
very early times two Ablative endings (1) -od, used for 
Nouns and some Adverbs, e.g. modo, cito, etc.; (2) -ed, 
reserved for Adverbs only. 

potisit, i.e. potis sit. Potis Masc, Fem. (here Fem.), pote 
Neut., were originally distinct. In course of time the 
Neut. pote came to be used in all cases. Hence class. 
potest for pote est, used with all subjects, Masc, Fern., 
or Neut. Virgil employs potis est, e.g. Aen. xi. 148 : — 

at non Evandrum potis est vis ulla tenere. 

tabelai, class, tabellae ^despatches.' Tahidae would be 

taholai (cf. tabolam, above). 
dismota, class, dlmota (§ 22). 
sient, the old 3d Plur. Pres. Subj. (properly Optative) of 

sum (see No. 32). 

XXXVIII. Dedicatory inscription of a Faliscan ' col- 
legium coquorum.' (O.I.L. xi. 3078.) 

Gonlegium quod est aciptum aetatei agedai, 
Opiparum ad ueitam qnolundam festosque dies, 
Quei soueis argutieis opidque Uolgani 



68 Handhooh of Latin Inscriptions. 

Gondecorant saipisume comuiuia loidosque, 
Quqnei hue dederunt inperatoribus summeis, 
Utei sesed lubentes beneionent optantis. 

louei lunonei Mineruai Palesce qnei in Sardinia snnt donum 
dederunt. Magistreis L. Latrius K. f. 0. Saluena Voltai 
f. coiraueront. 

Collegium quod est acceptum aetati agendae, 

opiparum ad vitam colendam festosqiie dies, 

qui suis argutiis opeqiie Vulcani 

condecorant saepissime convivia liidosque, 

coqui hoc dederunt imperatoribiis summis (i.e. eJupi- 

ter, Juno^ Minerva), 
ut sese libentes bene juvent optantes. 

Jovi Junoni Minervae Falisci qui in Sardinia sunt donum 
dederunt. Magistri L. Latrius Kiaesonis) f(ilius)^ 0. 
Salvenna Vidtae f(ilius) curaverunt. 

The spelling of this inscription is as faulty as the 
metre (Saturnian ?) ; witness g for c in gonlegiunij gonde- 
corant, Volgani ; also aciptum (for -cept-), ququei (for coq-), 
etc. ISTotice the double consonant in summeis, a doubling 
not found in aciptum, etc. 

quolundam. The g-guttural of colo (for quolo) is seen in 

inquilinus, beside incola. 
soueis. Ou was originally the vocalism of the accented, 

u of the unaccented, form of this Possessive (I.-Eur. 

s(w)gwo-). The same is true of puer^ of which the 

older spelling pover occurs in a sentence in Iambic 



Repuhlican Period. 69 

Senarii designed for a schoolboy's copying lesson 
{C.LL. in. p. 962) : — 

senem seuerum semper esse condecet. 
bene debet esse pouero qui discet bene. 

Similarly the ov of novus becomes u in the unaccented 
form of the word^ e.g. de-nuo for de novo. 

loidos (see § 16)^ cf. coirauerontj below. 

hue is the unaccented form of hoc Ace. Sg. Neut. (for 
^hod-ce, § 10). This unaccented form came to be re- 
served for the Adverb ^hither' (0. Lat. hoc, Hist. 
Gram. vii. 5). 

magistreis adds the ordinary Nom. Plur. ending -s to the 
already formed Plur. in -ei (class. -^) (see eeis, No. 37). 

XXXIX. The Dedicatory Tablet of the Vertuleii, 
found at Sora. {C.LL. i. 1175; x. 5708.) 

M. P. Vertuleieis 0. f. 
Quod re sua difeidens asper afleicta 
Parens timens heic uouit, uoto hoc soluto. 
Decuma facta poloncta, leibereis lubentes 
Donu danunt Heroolei maxsume mereto; 
Semol te orant se uoti crebro condemnes. 

M(arcus), P(ubUus) Vertuleii C(ai) f(ilii)y 
Quod re sua diffidens asper afflicta 
parens timens hic vovit, voto hoc soluto, 
decima facta, pollucta, liheri libentes 
donum dant LLercuU maxime merito; 
simul te orant se voti crebro condemnes. 



70 Handhooh of Latin Inscriptions, 

Vertuleieis. On this form of the Nom. Plur. see on 
magistreis (E"o. 38) and cf. leibereis, below. 

asper, not aspere, seems to be on the stone. Cf. Virg. 
rebus non asper egenis. 

heic. The Adv. hic ^here' was originally the Locative 
Case of the Pronoun Mc, and was spelled with ei, as 
here. Similarly illic ^ there' was Loc. of ille (illic 
Plant.) and was spelled illeic (cf. Gk. cKet). 

poloucta. Polliicere HerciiU dedmam was the current 
phrase for offering a tithe to Hercules; cf. Plant. 
SticJu 233 : — 

ut decumam partem Herculi polluceam. 

Varro L.L. vi. 54 id dicitur ^ polluctum/ quod a porri- 
ciendo est fictum; quom enim ex mercibus libamenta 
projecta sunt Herculi in aram, tum polluctum est. 
danunt. Third Plurals of this formation are a feature of 
Old Latin. Cf . Liv. Andr. Odyssey : — 

partim errant, nequinont Graeciam redire 

^they stray in companies, and cannot win back to 
Greece/ with nequinont for nequeunt (Hist. Gram. vi. 
20). 
uoti . . . condemnes. Cf. Virg. voti reus and damnabis 
tu quoque votis. 

XL. Statue of L. Manlius Acidinus, found at Aquileia; 
c. 181 B.C. (C.I.L. I. 538.) 

L. Manlius L. f. Acidinus triu uir Aqnileiae coloniae dedncundae. 
L. Manlius L. f. Acidinus triumvir Aquileiae coloniae 
deducendae. 



Repuhliean Period. 71 

The other two commissioners were P. Cornelius Scipio 
Nasica and C. Flaminius (Livy xl. 34; of. xxxix. 55). 
deducundae. The Gerundive in -undus (originally 
-om-clo-) existed side by side with the Gerundive in 
-endus (originally -em-do-) in early Latin ^ but was 
dropped in the classical period (see my Hist. Gram, 
ch. vi. § 18). 

XLI. Inscription of Claudius Marcellus, found at 
Luna; 155 b.c. (GJ.L. i. 539.) 

M. Claudius M. f. Marcelus consol iterum. 
M, Claudius M, /. Marcellus consul iterum. 

This inscription has a more ancient appearance than 
the preceding, owing to its retention of the old spellings 
consol (§ 14) and Marcelus (§ 17). 

XLIL The Dedicatory Inscriptions of Mummius; 
c. 146 B.C. {G,I,L, I. 542 sqq.) 

(a) L. Mumini L. f, cos. 

ductu auspicio imperiotiue eius 
Achaia capta Oorinto deleto 

Komam redieit triumphans ob hasce res bene gestas 
quod in bello uouerat banc aedem et signu 
Herculis Victoris imperator dedicat. 

L, Mummius L, f, co(n)s(uT) 
ductu auspicio imperioque ejus 
Achaia captaj GorintJio deleto, 
Romam rediit triumphans. Oh has res bene gestas 
quod in bello voverat, hanc aedem et signum 
Herculis Victoris imperator dedicat. 



72 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions, 

(h) Sancte. 

de decuma nictor tibei Lucius Mummius donum 
moribus antiqueis promiserat hoc dare sese 
uisum animo sue perfecit tua pace rogans te 
cogendei dissoluendei tu ut facilia faxseis 
perficias decumam ut faciat uerae rationis 
proque hoc atque alieis doneis des digna merenti. 

Sancte, 
de decima victor tihi Lucius Mummius donum 
moribus antiquis promiserat hoc dare sese. 
Visum animo suo perfecit^ tua pace rogans te 
cogendi dissolvendi tu ut facilia faxis (i.e. facias), 
Perficias decimum ut faciat verae rationis; 
proque hoc atqiie aliis donis des digna merenti, 

Mummius, the conqueror of Corinth and Carthage^ 
offered tithes of his booty to Hercules Victor (see on 
No. 39). These two inscriptions are dedicatory verses 
accompanying the gifts. It is possible that they are not 
the actual lines of Mummius, but a later copy, made 
when the inscription was renewed ; for the presence of 
ch in Achaia, ph in triumphans (but t in Corinto), at so 
early a period is strange. 

(a) Mummi(s). On this form of the Nom. Sg. of 10- 

stems, see on Mhiuci, No. 19. 
ductu auspicio imperioque. This was a current phrase. 

Cf. Plant. Amph, 196: — 

ductu imperio auspicio suo. 
Corinto, Masc. or Neut. ? 
redieit. The retention of the diphthong implying long 



Republican Period. 73 

quantity of the final syllable may be due to the prece- 
dence of ?*, just as d^ei retains long e, shortened infidei. 
Even Ovid scans reclilt, etc. (but cf. petieiy No. 46). 

hasce. The metre (Saturnian) seems to require mono- 
syllabic pronunciation, hasc. (See § 13.) 

On signu(m) see § 20. The last line of the inscription 
may be an Iambic Senarius. 

(p) promiserat. The word is doubtful, for the inscription 
is now lost. The vulgar reading is pro usicra. 

suo, a monosyllable, as in Lucretius i. 1022, v. 420. 

tua pace, Abl. like Plant. Hud. 268 : — 

fac nt ulciscare nosque ut hanc tua pace aram obsidere Patiare. 

The Accusative Case is out of the question, for a scan- 
sion like pacem rogans would be impossible, even in such 
rude lines as these. 

cogendei dissoluendi, etc. ^^that you would smooth the 
path for him in amassing and spending." 

facilia, to make a dactyl, must be pronounced fadia, like 
balneum for baUneun (see § 3). 

On faxis see p. 56. Xs is a common spelling at this 
period for x (see below on saxsum, Ko. 45). 

(B) From the Gracchi to Sulla. 

In this period the doubling of long vowels is found. 
For I either ei or I is written. 

XLIII. Inscription of Atilius Sarranus, found in Korth 
Italy; 135 b.c. (O.LL. i. 549.) 



74 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions, 

Sex. Atilius M. f. Saranns procos. ex senati consnlto inter 
Atestinos et Veicetinos finis terminosqne statui insit. 

Sex. Atilius M. f. Sarranus proco{n)s(ul) ex senatics con- 
sulto inter Atestinos et Vicentinos finis terminosque statui 
jussit. 

Double consonants are still written single on this stone, 
e.g. Saranus. 

senati is not an unusual Genitive. Quintilian declared 
it to be in liis time as good a form as senatus (see my 
Hist. Gram. p. 68 ; B. App. § 162). 

XLI V. Milestone of Popillius, found in Lucania ; 132 
B.C. (O.I.L. I. 551.) 

niam fecei ab Eegio ad Oapnam et in ea nia ponteis omneis 
miliarios tabelariosque poseinei hince snnt Nouceriam meilia 
II Oapuam XXCIIII Murannm IXXIIII Oosentiam CXXIII 
Ualentiam C±XXX ad fretum ad statnam CCXXXI Eeginm 
CCXXXVII snma af Oapna Eegium meilia CCCXXI et eidem 
praetor in Sicilia fugiteinos Italicorum conquaeisinei redideique 
homines DCCCCXVII eidemqne primus fecei ut de agro poplico 
aratoribns cederent paastores fornm aedisque poplicas heic fecei. 

viam feci ab Rliegio ad Capuam et in ea via pontes 
omnes miliarios tabellariosque posui. Hinc sunt Nuceriam 
milia Ll^ Capuam LXXXIM , Muranum LXXIV, Consentiam 
CXXIII.^ Valentiam CLXXX, ad fretum ad statuamCCXXX\, 
Bliegium CCXXXVII; summa ah Capua BJiegium milia 
CCCXXI. JSt idem praetor in Sicilia fugitivos Italicorum 
conquisivi, reddidique Jiomines DCCCCXVII; idemque pri- 
mus feci ut de agro publico aratorihus cederent pastores^ 
forum aedisque publicas hie feci. 



Republican Period. 75 

By this time I and ei express the same sound, and 
the diphthong is merely used to express the long sound 
of the simple vowel; e.g. ponteis omneis were at no 
period pronounced with the diphthong ei (§ 16). Double 
consonants are written single throughout the inscrip- 
tion, e.g. 

tabelarios, suma, redidei. 

Regio. The spelling rh for Greek p did not come in 
till the end of the Eepublic. 

poseiuei. The form posni, a form due to false anal- 
ogy, has not yet ousted the true form po-sivL Pono, 
for ^po-s(i)no, is a compound of the old Prep, po 
(Gk. cxTrd) and sino^ and properly formed its Perfect 
po-sivi as its Supine po-situm. But the analogy of 
moiiitiim, etc., suggested that a Supine positum should 
have a Perfect posui; and this erroneous form gradu- 
ally ousted the other, which, however, is exclusively 
used by the older writers. (See my Hist. Gram. 
ch. xi. § 21 ; B. Aj?}:). § 261. 4.) 

meUia. The word was at this time pronounced with 
double 1; but on this inscription double consonants 
are written single. About the time of Augustus 11 be- 
tween I and ^ was reduced to I. Hence milia, older 
mlllia; vllicus, older vilUcics, eto. See my Hist. Gram, 
ch. ii. § 9. 

Cosentiam, see § 22. 

af. The origin of this by-form of a, ab is uncertain. 
See my Hist. Gram. ch. vii. § 2. 

eidem. The ei expresses the sound I of Idem (for is-dem, 
§ 22). 



76 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

conquaeisivei. The aei is a curious spelling^ half-way 
between ai and ei. 

poplico, see on poplicod, No. 37. 

paastores. This method of indicating a long vowel^ by 
doubling it, just as a long consonant was written 
double, was introduced by the poet Accius, and gained 
favour for a time. Afterwards it was discarded for 
the " apex/^ an accent-sign placed above the vowel to 
indicate the length, e.g. PASTOR ES. See § 17. 

heic. This is the original spelling of the Adverb Mc, 
properly the Locative Case of the Pronoun; see on 
lieAc, No. 39. 

XLV. Epitaph of a Scipio, in Saturnian metre. {G.LL. 
1.34; VI. 1289.) 

L. Cornelius On. f. On. n. Scipio. 
magna sapientia mnltasqne uirtutes 
aetate qnom parna posidet hoc saxsum 
quoiei Vita defecit non Honos honore 
is hie situs quel nunquam uietus est uirtutei 
annos gnatus XX is loceis mandatus 
ne quairatis honore quel minus sit mandatus. 

L. Cornelius Cn. /. Cn. n{epos) Scipio. 
Magnam sapientiam multasque virtutes 
aetate cum parva possidet hoc saxum. 
Cui Vita defecit non Honos lionorem^ 
is hie situs, qui nunquam victus est virtute. 
Annos natus viginti is ( ? u's) locis mandatus. 
Ne quaeratis honor em qui minus sit mandatus. 



Republican Period, 77 

quom. Since quo had come to be pronounced like co the 
two are often interchanged (see on oquoltod, No. 37). 

posidet. The double consonant is written single in this 
word, but double in annos, below. 

saxsum. Xs is a common way of writing x in early in- 
scriptions, and indeed in Latin of all periods (cf. 
exstrad Ko. 37, faxseis No. 42, saxso No. 66 (5), etc.). 

quoiei. On this form see § 10. The Eelative in Latin 
formed its Gen. and Dat. by adding to its Instrumental 
Case quo the Gen. and Dat. of the Demonstr. Pron. 
^qud-eios{^ qud-eiei (Hist. Gram. ch. v. § 6). 

honore(m) (so below), Ace. after defecit ^stinted.' On 
the absence of -m see § 20. 

virtutei, i.e. virtutl (§ 17), is the I-stem Abl. (originally 
-tld, § 10), while the classical form virtute (originally 
virtutl, § 21) is really the Loc. (§ 10). 

liic is the Adv. hic, 

is is naturally taken as Nom. Sg. ' he.' It may also be 
Dat. Plur. agreeing with loceis ' assigned to this grave ' 
(cf. locidus) ; for the use of is, where hie would be the 
proper Pron., is not unknown in writers of this time. 
The reading loceis is due to conjecture, there being a 
gap in the stone. Buecheler prefers diueis (i.e. the 
Manes). 

quairatis. The old spelling is retained, though the diph- 
thong was now certainly pronounced ae, 

quei is Adverbial qui ' how ' : ^ do not ask how it was that 
honour was not assigned to him,' lit. ^ do not ask about 
honour how it was,' etc. This is the common Latin 
idiom, e.g. iiovi te qualis sis, like the Gk. ol^i o-e otms u. 



78 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

Another rendering is ^do not ask about his honours, 
for they (lit. ' which ') were never granted him.' 

XL VI. Epitaph of Cn. Cornelius Scipio Hispanus, in 
Elegiac metre; praetor 139 b.c. (CJ.L, i. 38; vi. 1293.) 

On. Cornelius On. f. Scipio Hispanus pr. aid, cur. q, tr. mil. 
II Xuir si. iudik. Xuir sacr. fac. 

uirtutes generis mieis moribus accumulaui 

progenie mi genui facta patris petiei 
maiorum optenui laudem ut sibei me esse creatum 

laetentur stirpem nobilitauit honor, 

Cn, Cornelms Cn. /. Scipio Hispanus pr(aetor), aed(ilis) 
curiidis), q(itaestor), tr{ihunus) mil(itaris), bis decemvir 
l(itibus) judic(anclis), decemvir sacr(is) fac(iendis), 

virtutes generis meis moribus accumulavi, 
progeniem mi genui, facta patris petii, 

majorum obtinui laudem, ut sibi me esse creatum 
laetentur; stirpem nobilitavit lionor, 

si. On stlis, slis, old forms of lis, see Hist, Gram. ch. x. 
§ 19 ; B. App. § 104. 1 d. Notice the k of iudik(andeis). 

mieis, monosyllabic, like suo (No. 42 b). On the spelling 
with i, which avoided the awkward form meets (mis- 
takable for ^meis), see my Latin Language, ch. ii. § 9. 

progenie (m). On the dropping of -m see § 20. This 
word must be pronounced apparently prog^eriye {? pro- 
genia, like facilid, No. 42 b) to suit the metre. Bueche- 
ler prefers to read progeniem genui, 

petiei. The ei of petiei beside the i of accumulaui is due 



Republican Period, 79 

to the desire to avoid the spelling ii which might rep- 
resent j/ or even i (of. paastores in No. 44). 

optenui. Op represents the sound actually pronounced, 
as we know from Quintilian (i. 7. 7). 

sibei. The metre requires siM, but the old spelling is 
retained. Cf . tihei Xo. 42 h, 

nobilitauit. By this time a long vowel had become short- 
ened before a final t (see § 18). 

XLYII. Epita]oh in Iambic senarii found at Eome ; of 
the time of the Gracchi. {C.LL. i. 1007; vi. 15346.) 

hospes, quod deico, paullum est, asta ac pellege. 
heic est sepulcrum hau pulcrum pulcrai feminae. 
nomen parentes nominarunt Olaudiam. 
suom mareitum corde deilexit sono. 
gnatos duos creauit. horuno alterum 
in terra linquit, alium sub terra locat. 
sermone lepido, turn autem incessu commodo. 
domum seruauit; lanam fecit, dixi. abei. 

Sepulcrum (from sepelio) was vulgarly derived from se 

' without ' and pulclier ' beautiful.^ 
Commodus in the early literature often means ' graceful ' 

^correct/ {-cum moclo) e.g. Plant. 3fost, 254-5: — 

PH. sue quisque loco (uiden?) capillus satis compositust 

commode ? 
SC. ubi tu commoda es, capillum commodum esse credito. 

Lanijica is a commendatory epithet in epitaphs on Roman 
ladies. 



80 Handlooh of Latin Inscriptions. ^ 

Ei is used on this inscription not only for the older 
diphthong (as in deico^ heic^ abei), but also for a long 
simple I as in deilexit (cf. § 16). Another mixture of 
old and new spelling is pulcrai (a disyllable) beside 
feminae. 

pauUum would be paulum in the classical spelling (Hist. 
Gram. ii. 9). 

Souo- is the older spelling, while sua- was originally 
proper to the unaccented use of the word (cf. ndvus 
beside denuo; see on soueis, No. 38). 

Hau was the proper form before an initial consonant, 
liaud before an initial vowel (§ 19). 

XLVIII. The Law of Bantia. On a bronze tablet, which 
contained on the other side a law in the Oscan language, 
found at Bantia in Lucania; 133-118 B.C. (C.I.L. i. 
197.) 

. . . deicito neiue qnis mag. testumonium poplice ei . . . 
Heine is in poplico Innci praetextam neine soleas. . . . Mag. 
qneiqnomqne comitia concilinmne habebit enm snfraginm 
ferre nei sinito . . . qnei ex hace lege plebeine scito factns 
erit senatorne fecerit gesseritne qno ex hace lege ... ex h. 
1. facere oportnerit oportebitne non fecerit sciens d. m. seine 
adnorsns hanoe legem fecerit . . . earn peqnniam qnei nolet 
magistratns exsigito. Sei postnlabit qnei petet pr. recnpera- 
tores . . . oporteat dato inbetoqne enm sei ita pariat con- 
dnmnari popnlo facitoqne jondicetnr. Sei condemnatns . . . 
ad q. nrb. det ant bona eins poplice possideantnr facito. 
Seiqnis mag. mnltam inrogare nolet . . . partus familias 
taxsat liceto eiq. omninm rernm siremps lexs esto qnasei sei 



Republican Period. 81 

is haace lege . . . nunc est is in diebns V proxsnmeis quibns 
queique eorum sciet h, 1. popolnm plebemue . . . eis in diebus 
V proxsnmeis quibns quisque eorum mag. inperiumve inierit 
ionranto. . . . Oastorus palam luci in forum norsus et eidem 
in diebus V apud q. ionranto per louem deosque . . . fac- 
turum neque sese aduorsum h. 1. facturum scientem d. m. 
neque seese facturum neque intercesurum. . . . Quei ex h. 
1. non iourauerit is magistratum inperiumue nei petito neiue 
gerito neiue habeto neiue in senatu . . . ni quis sinito neiue 
eum censor in senatum legito . . . 

{neve is testimoniitm) dicito neve quis mag(istratus) testi- 
monium puhlice ei (deferri neve denuntiari sinito). , . . 
Neve is in pnblico luce praetextam neve soleas (habeto). 
. . . Mag{istratus) quicumque comitia conciliumve habebit 
enm suffragium ferre ne sinito . . . (;S'^ judex) qui ex hac 
lege plebive scito factus erit, senatorve fecerit gesseritve, quo 
ex Jiac lege (quaejieri oporteat minus fiant quaeve) ex 7i(ac) 
l(ege) facer e oportuerit oportebitve non fecerit sciens d(olo) 
m(cdo) ; sive adversus hanc legem fecerit (. . . multa . . . 
esto et) eam 2)eciiniam qui volet magistratus exigito. Si 
postulabit qui petet, pr{aetor) recuperatores . . . {quos 
quotque dari) oporteat dato jubetoque eum, si ita pariat, 
condemnari populo facitoque judicetur. Si condemnatus 
(erit, quanti condemnatus erit, praedes) ad q(iiaestorem) 
nrb{anum) det aut bona ejus publice possideantur facito. 
Siquis mag{istratus) midtain irrogare volet {qui volet, dum 
minoris) partis familiae taxat, licet o eiq{ue) omnium rerum 
siremps lex esto, quasi si is hac lege {pecuniam quae supra 
scripta est exegisset. Consid . . .) qui nunc est, is in diebus 
V proximis, quibus quique eorum sciet h{anc) l{egem) popu- 



82 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

lum plebemve {jussisse, juranto uti infra scriptum est. 
Item dictator, consul . . . quicumqite eorum post hac 
f actus erit), ei in cliebus V proximis, quibus quisque eorum 
magiistratum) inperiumve inierit, juranto {uti infra scrip- 
tum est, Ei consistunto ante aedem) Castoris palam luce 
in forum versus et eidem in diebus Vapitd q{itaestorem) 
juranto per Jovem deosque {Penates sese quae ex hac lege 
oportebit) facturum, neque sese adversum h{anc) l{egem) 
facturum scientem d{olo) m{alo), neque sese facturum neque 
intercessurum {quo quae ex hac lege oportebit minus fiant). 
Qui ex hac lege non juraverit, is magistratum imperiumve 
ne petito neve gerito neve habeto neve in senatu {sententiam 
dicito dicereve eum) nequis sinito neve eum censor in sena- 
tum legito. . . . 

neiue. See on neiquis, No. 37. 

poplice. See on poplicod, No. 37. 

pequniam. The spelling qu for quu {quo) was in vogue 
about this time. 

pariat, probably a mere misspelling of pareat. 

condumnari. Before a labial in the earlier literary period 
a reduced vowel often sinks to H, not e {l) ; see on 
oinuorsei, No. 37. Cf. testumonium, above. 

partus. For this Gen. ending see on nominus, No. 37. 
Cf. Castorus, below. 

taxsat. Taxat, Pres. Subj. of ^taxo (for ^tag-so), a by- 
form of tango, as viso of video, was retained in the legal 
phrase dum taxat, which in Classical Latin has become 
a mere Conj. dumtaxat (see my Latin Language, ch. ix. 
§ 7). On xs for x, a prevalent spelling on this inscrip- 
tion^ see on saxsum. No. 45. 



Repuhlican Period. 83 

siremps. This is a mysterious word which puzzled the 
Latin Grammarians. It occurs in the prologue of 
the Amphitruo of Plautus (y. 73) : — 

sirempse legem iussit esse luppiter, 

and in old laws it is fairly common in this formula: 
siremps lex esto ^the same law shall hold' (see my 
Latin Language, ch. ix. § 8). 

XLIX. The Aletrium Temple inscription, on the front 
of a temple at Aletrium in Latium. (C.I.L. i. 1166.) 

L. Betihenns L. f. Vaarus haec quae infera scripta sont de 
senatus sententia facienda coiranit semitas in oppido omnis, 
porticnm qua inarcem eitur campum ubei ludunt horologium 
macelum basihcam calecandam seedes lacum balinearium lacum 
ad portam aquam in opidum adque arduom pedes CCCXd^ 
fornicesque fecit fistulas soledas fecit. Ob hasce res censorem 
fecere bis senatus fiho stipendia mereta ese iousit populusque 
statuam donauit Oensorino. 

L, Betilienus L. f{ilius) Varus haec quae infra scripta 
sunt de senatus sententia facienda curavit : semitas in 
oppido omniSf porticum qua in arcem itur, campum uhi 
ludunt, horologium, macellum, hasilicam ccdcandam, sedes, 
lacum balnearium, lacum ad portam, aqiiam in oppidxtm 
adque (atque?) arduum pedes CCCXL, fornicesque fecit, 
flstidas soledas fecit. Ob hasce res censorem fecere bis, 
senatus Jilio stipendia merita esse jussit, populusque ^ta- 
tuam donavit Censorino. 

infera^ class, infra; cf. supera. No. 54 a. 



84 Handhooh of Latin Inscriptions, 

inarcem. The Prep, and Noun were often written to- 
gether, as they were always pronounced together (Hist. 
Gram, ii. 11). Cf. I^os. 59, 60. 

calecandam. Lat. calx, lime, is a loan-word from the Gk. 
(xaXt^), and was originally a disy liable. 

balinearium. On balineum (Gk. ^aXavdov) (cf . platea from 
Gk. TrXareta), see § 12. 

in opidum adque arduom. Here we seem to have the 
original meaning of oppidum ^ the town on the plain ' 
as opposed to Hhe fortress on the hill.' The word is 
the same as Gk. iriSov, ground, eTrtVeSo?, flat. So the 
Adv. oppido is like plane. 

iousit. On the diphthong see ioiisiset, No. 37. 

L. The Lex Eepetundarum, on bronze tablets, found 
at Eome, 123-122 b.c. (G.I.L. i. 198.) (Extract.) 

. . . De nomine defernndo iudicibnsque legundeis. Quel ex 
h. 1. peqnniam ab . . . eum annum lectei erunt ad iudicem, in 
eum annum quel ex h. 1. factus erit inious educito nomenque 
eius deferto. Sei deiurauerit calumniae causa non . . . erit de 
CDL uireis quel in eum annum ex h. 1. lectei erunt aruorsario 
edat eos omnes . . . priuignusue siet queiue ei sobrinus siet 
propiusue eum ea cognatione attingat queiue ei sodalis siet 
queiue in eodem conlegio siet. Pacitoque coram aruorsario . . . 
non attingeret scientem d. m. itaque is edito iouratoque. TJbei 
is ita ediderit, tum in cam . . . erit facito utei is die uicensumo 
ex eo die quo quoiusque quisque nomen detolerit Ouiros ex eis 
quel ex h. 1. CDL uirei in eum annum lectei erunt quel uiuat 
legat . . . siet quoi is queiue ei quel petet gener socer uitricus 
priuignusque siet queiue ei sobrinus . . . ei sodalis siet queiue 



Republican Period. 85 

tr. pi. q. Ill uir cap. Ill iiir a. d. a. tribunus mil. 1. IIII primi^ 
aliqua earnm siet fueritue queiue insenatu siet fneritiie queine 
1. Eubria . . . aberit queine trans mare erit neiue amplins de 
una familia unum neiue eum . . . Oalpurnia aut lege lunia 
Sacramento actum siet aut quod h. 1. nomen delatum siet. Quos 
is Ouiros ex h. 1. ediderit de eis ita facito iouret palam apud se 
coram . . . necesitudine atingat quae supra scripta sient. Is 
unde petitum erit quominus. . . . Ouiros ediderit iuraritue. 
Tum eis pr. facito utei is unde petetur die LX postquam eius 
nomen delatum erit quos is quel petet ex h. 1. ediderit de eis 
indices quos . . . nomen ex h. 1. delatum erit L indices ex h. 1, 
non legerit edideritue seine . . . sodalitate attingat queine in 
eodem conlegio siet ex h. 1, non . . . eum pr. aduorsariumue 
mora non erit quo minus legat edatue . . . ioudicem legat. 
Quel ita lectei erunt eis in eam rem ioudices sunto eorumque eius 
. . . utei scripta in taboleis habeantur. Pr. quei ex h. 1. quaeret 
facito . . . quos is quei petet et unde petetur ex h. 1. legerint 
ediderint eosque patronos . . . quei petiuerit et unde petitum 
erit quei eorum uolet extaboleis poplicis . . . Eisdem ioudices 
muTis rei in perpetuom sient. Quei indices . . . quam in rem 
eis indices lectei erunt . . . quei pequniam ex h. 1. capiet eum 
ob eam rem quod pequniam ex h. 1. ceperit . . . moueto neiue 
equom adimito neiue quid ob eam rem fraudei esto. . . . 

. . . De nomine deferendo judicibusque legendis. Qui 
ex h(ac) l(ege) pecuniam ah {altero petet, is eum unde petet 
. . . postquam CDL viri ex Jiac lege in) eum annum lecti 
erunt, ad judicem, in eum annum qui ex h(ac) l(ege) /actus 
erit, in jus educito nomenque ejus deferto. Si dejeraverit 
calumniae causa non {postulare, is praetor nomen recipito 
itaque facito . . . utdie . . . ex eo die, quo cujusque quisque 



86 Handbooh of Latin Inscriptions. 

nomen detulerit, is ciijits nomen delatum) erit de CDL viris 
qui in eum annum ex h(ac) l{ege) lecti erunt, adversaria 
edat eos omnes ( . . . cui is quive ei cujus nomen delatum 
erit gener socer vitricus) privignusve sit quive ei sohrinus 
sit propiusve eum ea cognatione attingat, quive ei sodalis 
sit, quive in eodem coUegio sit, Facitoque coram adversario 
{is cujus nomen delatum erit juret, de CDL viris, qui in 
eum annum ex liac lege lecti sint, praeterea nidlum esse nisi 
qui se earum aliqua necessitudine, quae supra scripta sint) 
non attingeret scientem d(plo) m(alo) itaque is edito jurato- 
que, Uhi is ita ediderit, tum in earn {quaestionem qui 
cujusque ita nomen detulerit, praetor, cujus ex hac lege 
quaestio) erit, facito uti is die vicesimo ex eo die quo cujus- 
que quisque nomen detiderit Cviros ex eis qui ex li(ac) l(ege) 
CDL viri in eum annum lecti erunt qui vivat legat {edatque 
. . . dum nequis judex) sit cui is quive ei qui petet gener 
socer vitricus privignusque sit quive ei sohrinus {sit pro- 
piusve eum ea cognatione attingat, quive in eodem collegia 
sit, quive) ei sodcdis sit quive tr(ibunus) pl{ebis), q{uaestor), 
III vir cap{italis), III vir a(gris) d{andis) a(ssignandis), 
tribunus mil{itum) l{egionibus) IIII primis aliqua earum sit 
fueritve, quive in senatu sit fueritve, quive l{ege) Rubria 
{III vir coloniae deducendae creatus sit fueritve, . . . quive 
ab urbe Roma plus . . milia passuum) aberit, quive trans 
mare erit ; neve amplius de una familia unum, neve 
eum (legat edatve, qui pecuniae captae condemnatus est 
erit aut quod cum eo lege) Calpurnia aut lege Junia Sacra- 
mento actum sit aut quod h{ac) l(ege) nomen delatum sit. 
Quos is Cviros ex h(ac) l(ege) ediderit, de eis ita facito 
juret palam apud se coram {adversaria earum nidlum 



Repuhlican Period. 87 

se eclidisse scientem dolo malo, quern oh earum causa- 
rum aliquam de ea re judicare non liceat quive se earum 
aliqua) necessitudine attingat, quae supra scripta sint. Is 
unde petitum erit quominus {ex Jiac lege ex reis eximatur, 
per eum praetorem adversariumque mora non erit, nisi 
is qui petet ita C) vivos ediderit juraritque. Turn eis 
pr(aetor) facito ut is unde petetur die LX postquam ejus 
nomen delatum erit, quos C is qui petet ex Ji(ac) l(ege) 
ediderit de eis judices quos {volet L legat . . . Qui ex hac 
lege nomen detiderit, si is, cujus) nomen ex h(ac) l(ege) 
delatum erit, L judices ex 7i(ac) l(ege) non leg erit edideritve, 
sive {ex CDL viris qui in eum annum ex hac lege lecti 
erunt qui se affinitate cognatione) sodalitate attingat, quive 
in eodem collegio sit ex h(ac) l(ege) non {ediderit, turn ei 
per) eum pr(aetorem) adversariumve mora non erit quomi- 
nus legat edatve {quos volet L de eis G quos ex hac lege 
ediderit . . . du7n nequem eorum, quem ex hac lege de ea 
re judicare non liceat, sciens dolo malo) judicem legat. 
Qui ita lecti erunt ei in earn rem judices sunto, eorum- 
que ejus {rei ex hac lege judicatio litisque aestimatio esto, 
Judicum patronorumque nomina) ut scripta in tabidis habe- 
antur, Pr{aetor) qui ex h(ac) l(ege) quaeret facito {eos 
L viros) quos is qui petet et unde petetur ex h(ac) l(ege) 
legerint ediderint eosque patronos, {quos ei qui petet ex hac 
lege dederit . . . in tahulis louUicis scriptos in perpetuo 
habeat Ea nomina) qui petierit et unde petitum erit 
qui eorum uolet ex tabulis publicis {describere, is praetor 
permittito potestatemque scribendi facito). Idem judices 
unius rei in perpetuum sint. Qui judices {ex hac lege lecti 
erunt,) quam in rem ei judices lecti erunt, {ejus rei judices 



88 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

in perpetuum sunto , , , ) qui pecuniam ex h{ac) l(ege) 
capietj eum oh earn rem quod pecuniam ex Ji{aG) l(ege) 
ceperit {ne . . neve trihu) moveto neve equum adimito neve 
quid oh eam rem fraudi esto, 

Notice the frequent writing of the Preposition in the 
same word with its Noun (e.g. inious ^injus/ insenatu), 
the spelling qu for cu (quu) (e.g. pequniam), the occa- 
sional use of a single for a double consonant (necesitu- 
dine atingat), the retention (not, however, consistently) 
of the old diphthongs (e.g. ious, iourato), and of 6 for u 
(e.g. detolerit), the Nom. Plur. of the Demonstrative in 
-(e)iSf e.g. eis eis-dem. Of the Relative the forms in use 
are Nom. quei, Gen. quoius, Dat. quoi (see § 10). The 
Prohibitive Particle is nei (ni), on which see neiquis, 
No. 37. 

LI. Inscriptions of magistrates of Capua. 

(a) 108 B.C. (CLL. i. 565.) 

. . . Heisce magistreis Venerus louiae murnm aedificandum 
coirauerunt ped. CCvX'XX et loidos fecerunt Ser. Sulpicio M. 
Aurelio cos. 

(h) 106 B.C. (CLL. I. 566.) 

. . . Heisce magistreis Oererus murum et pluteum long. p. 
IXXX alt. p. XXI faciund. coiranere eidemque loid. fee. 0. 
Atilio Q. Seruilio cos. 

(c) 106 B.C. (CLL. I. 567.) 

. . . Heisce magistrei Oastori et PoUuci nuirum et pluteum 
faciund. coerauere eidemque loedos fecere Q. Seruilio 0. Atilio 

COS. 



Republican Period, 89 

(a) Hi magistri Veneris Joviae murum aecUJicandum 
curaverunt pedies) CCLXX et ludos fecerunt Ser, Sul^ncio 
M. Aurelio cos. 

(b) Hi magistri Cereris murum et pluteum longios) 
pedes LXXX aIt(os) p{edes) XXI faciund(ps) curavere 
idemque hcd(os) fec(ere) C. Atilio Q. Servilio cos. 

(c) Hi magistri Castori et Polluci muru.m et j^^^deicm 
faciend(os) curavere idemque ludos fecere Q. Servilio C. 
Atilio COS. 

Notice the Nom. Plur. in -eis not merely of pronouns 
(see on eeis N'o. 37^ eis No. 50), but also of nouns^ e.g. 
magistreis; and the Gen. Sg. in -us (Venerus, Cererus), 
see on nominus, No. 37. 

On Venerus louiae see Jozies, No. 2. 

LII. Decree of the Pagus Herculaneus, 94 b.c. (G.I.L. 
I. 571.) 

Pagns Herculanens sciuit a. d. X Terniinalia. 

Oonleginm seine magistrei louei compagei sunt utei in 
porticnm paganam reficiendam pequniam consumerent ex lege 
pagana arbitratn On. Laetori On. f. magistrei pagei uteiqne 
ei conlegio seine magistri sunt lonei compagei locus in 
teatro esset tam quasei sei ludos fecissent. ... 0. Ooelio 
0. f. Oaldo, L. Domitio On. f. Ahenobarbo cos. 

Pagus Herculanens scivit a{nte) d(iem) X Terminalia. 

Collegium, sive magistri Jovii compagi sunt, ut in porti- 
cum paganam reficiendam pecuniam consumerent ex lege 
pagana arhitratu Cn. Laetorii On. f. magistri pagi; utque 
ei collegio, sive magistri sunt Jovii compagi, locus in theatro 



90 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

esset tam quasi si ludos fecissent ... (7. Coelio 0. f(ilio), 
L. Domitio Cn. f{ilio) Ahenobarbo cos, 

pequniam. For this spelling cf. No. 51. 
teatro. The use of tJi for Gk. had not yet come in 
(§ 23). 

LIII. Lex Cornelia de XX Quaestoribus, on a bronze 
tablet found at Eome ; 81 b.c. (C.I.L. i. 202.) 

. . . Oos. quei nunc sunt, iei ante k. Decembreis primas 
de eis, quei ciues Eomanei sunt, uiatorem unum legunto, quei 
in ea decuria uiator appareat, quam decuriam uiatorum ex 
noneis Decembribus primeis quaestoribus ad aerarium apparere 
oportet oportebit. Eidemque cos. ante k. Decembr. primas 
de eis, quei ciues Eomanei sunt, praeconem unum legunto, 
quei in ea decuria praeco appareat, quam decuriam praeconum 
ex noneis Decembribus primeis quaestoribus ad aerarium 
apparere oportet oportebit. . . . Eosque uiatores eosque prae- 
cones omneis, quos eo ordine dignos arbitrabuntur, legunto. 
Quam in quisque decuriam ita uiator lectus erit, is in ea 
decuria uiator esto item utei ceterei eius decuriae uiatores 
erunt. Quamque in quisque decuriam ita praeco lectus erit, 
is in ea decuria praeco esto ita utei ceterei eius decuriae 
praecones erunt. Sirempsque eis uiatoribus deque eis uiatori- 
bus q(uaestori) omnium rerum iuus lexque esto, quasei sei 
uiatores in eam decuriam in tribus uiatoribus antea lectei 
sublectei essent. Sirempsque eis praeconibus deque eis prae- 
conibus quaestori omnium rerum iuus lexque esto, quasei sei 
ei praecones in eam decuriam in tribus praeconibus antea 
lectei sublectei essent, quam in quisque decuriam eorum ex 
hac lege praeco lectus erit. 



Republican Period, 91 

Quos quomque quaestores ex lege plebeiue scito uiatores 
legere sublegere oportebit, ei quaestores eo iure ea lege 
uiatores IIII legunto sublegunto, quo iure qua lege q(uae- 
stores), quel nunc sunt, uiatores III legerunt sublegerunt. 
Quosque quomque quaestores ex lege plebei ue scito praecones 
legere sublegere oportebit, ei quaestores eo iure ea lege prae- 
cones IIII legunto sublegunto, quo iure qua lege quaestores, 
quel nunc sunt, praecones III legerunt sublegerunt, dum 
niquem in eis uiatoribus praeconibus legundeis sublegundeis in 
eius uiatoris praeconis locum uiatorem praeconem legant sub- 
legant, quoins in locum per leges plebeiue scita uiatorem 
legei sub legi non licebit. Ita que de eis quattuor uiatoribus 
quaestor queiquomque erit uiatores sumito habeto, utei ante 
banc legem rogatam de tribus uiatoribus uiatores habere 
sumere solitei sunt. ... 

This inscription is nearer Classical than Archaic Latin, 
and its examples of archaic forms will be understood by 
reference to the notes on previous inscriptions. With 
iei cf. mieis, ISTo. 46. On siremps see No. 48. 

LIV. Epitaphs from the Via Nomentana. (O./.i. i.lOll.) 
(a) Aurelia L, 1. Philematio. 

Uiua Philematium sum Aurelia nominitata, 

Casta, pudens, uolgei nescia, feida uiro, 
uir conleibertus fuit, eidem, quo careo eheu, 

ree fuit ee uero plus superaque parens. 
Septem me naatam annorum gremio ipse recepit, 5 

quadraginta annos nata necis potior, 
ille meo officio adsiduo florebat ad omnis 
# # # ^ # # # ^# 



92 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

(h) L. Aurelius L. 1. Hermia lanins de coUe Viminale. 

haec, quae me faato praecessit, corpore casto, 

coniunxs, una meo praedita amans animo, lo 

fido fida uiro ueixsit, studio parili qum 
nulla in auaritie cessit ab officio. 
Notice the doubling of long vowels (cf. iuus ^jtis' on 
the last inscription) v. 4. supera ' supra/ a form affected 
by Lucretius, v. 6. necis potior, ' fall into the hands of 
death.' Cf. the Plautine use of potior , e.g. Capt. 92 post- 
quam mens rex est potitits Jiostiumy ^ after my patron fell 
into the enemy's hands ' : v. 11 ueixsit. The i of the first 
syllable of the Perf. of vivo is long by nature, vixi; on 
xs see No. 45, saxsum; qum is a spelling of quum (here 
possibly the Prep, cum), which was common at this time, 
and which is often found in our Mss. of Plautus, etc. 
V. 12. avaritie. The 5th Decl. form of avaritia is used 
also by Lucretius. Each new generation of poetry brought 
additions to the 5th Decl. from the ranks of the 1st (see 
my Hist Gram. ch. iii. § 13). 

LV. Inscriptions in honor of Sulla, 82-79 b.c. (O.I.L. 
I. 584-6.) 

(a) L. Oornelio L. f. SuUae fellcl dictator! ulcus laci Fund(ani). 

(b) L. Oornelio L. f. SuUae feleici dictator! libertini. 

(c) L. Oornelio L. f. SuUae feel!c(i) die. 

Notice the tall i-form (beside ei of feleici) to denote 
the long quantity of the vowel. Long e is written ee in 
feelici. 

LVI. Inscription of the Commune Lyciorum, 81 b.c. ? 
(Greek and Latin.) (C.LL. i. 589.) 



Republican Period. 93 

Oommuni restituto in maiorum leibertatem Koma, louei Oapi- 
tolino et poplo Eomano uirtutis beniuolentiae benificique caussa 
erga Lucios ab communi. 

On poplo see No. 4. Caussa became later causa, § 25, 
Hist, Gram. ch. ii. § 9. 

LVII. The Furfo Decree, found at Furfo in S. Italy, 
58 B.C. (C.I.L, I. 603.) 

. . . Sei quod ad earn aedem donum datum donatum dedica- 
tumque erit, utei liceat oeti uenum dare, Ubei uenum datum 
erit, id profanum esto. Venditio locatio aedilis esto, quam 
quomque ueicus rurfeiis(is) fecerint, quod se sentiat eam rem 
sine scelere sine piaculo uendere locare, alis ne potesto. Quae 
pequnia recepta erit, ea pequnia emere conducere locare dare, 
quo id templum melius honestiusque seit, liceto. Quae pequnia 
ad eas res data erit, prof ana esto, quod d(olo) m(alo) non erit 
factum. Quod emptum erit aere aut argento ea pequnia, quae 
pequnia ad id emendum datum erit quod emptum erit, eis rebus 
eadem lex esto, quasei sei dedicatum sit. 

Sei qui heic sacrum surupuerit, aedilis multatio esto, quanti 
uolet. Idque ueicus rurfens(is) mai(or) pars fifeltares sei apso- 
luere uolent sine condemnare, liceto. 

Sei qui ad hoc templum rem deiuinam fecerit loui libero aut 
Icuis genio, pelleis coria fanei sunto. 

alis for alius, probably a colloquial form, is found in 
Catullus (Ixvi. 28) : — 

quod non fortior ausit alis. 
So alid in Lucretius i. 263 : 

quando alid ex alio reficit natura. 
The word fifeltares is obscure. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE AGE OF CICERO AND THE EARLY EMPIRE. 
CLASSICAL LATIN. 

23. The number of Greek words that were being intro- 
duced into the language, and the growing study of Greek 
Grammar and Phonetics, led to the more exact orthog- 
raphy of Greek loan-words. The Greek letters Upsilon 
(Y, our y) and Zeta (Z, our z) supplanted the earlier 
transliteration by u, ss (s) (e.g. cymha, earlier cumba), 
and found their way into some words that were pure 
Latin, e.g. silva, wrongly written sylva. The Greek 
Aspirate Mutes were expressed by tJi, ph, ch, instead 
of t, p, c, as hitherto, and Greek initial Eho by rJi-, 

24. A change in the 2d Decl. is described by Cicero 
(Orat, xlvi. 155) as having been effected in his own life- 
time, viz. the disuse of the old Gen. Plur. ending -urn (-om) 
for the new-fashioned -ovum (see my Hist, Gram. ch. iii. 
§ 6, and cf. duonoro(m), ISTo. 25). 

25. The Orthography of Ciceronian and Augustan 
Latin exhibits many archaic features that are not always 
found in our editions of these authors, e.g. qicoi for cut, 
ei frequently for i, ns for s in vicensumus, etc., u for i in 
vicensumus, maxumus, etc. Julius Caesar is said to have 
brought about the use of the ^new^ spelling with i on 

91 



Classical Period, 95 

State inscriptions^ 0]}timus, maximus. Long Vowels are 
now indicated by the ^apex/ a mark like the Greek 
acute accent. Traces of the apex still remain in French, 
e.g. ete, and other alphabets derived from the Latin. 

After a diphthong II is now written I ; while ss becomes 
s after a long vowel too, e.g. causa, misi (cf. repromeisserit, 
No. 69). 

LVIII. Epitaph on an actress, Eome; c. 50 b.c. 
(C./.Z. I. 1009; VI. 10096.) 

Eucharis Liciniae l(iberta) docta erodita omnes artes uirgo 
uixit aii(nos) XIIII. 

heus oculo errante qnei aspicis leti domus, 
morare gressum et titnlum nostrnm perlege, 
amor parenteis quern dedit natae suae, 
ubei se reliquiae conlocarent corporis, 
heio uiridis aetas cum floreret artibus 
crescente et aeuo gloriam conscenderet, 
properauit hora tristis fatalis mea 
et denegauit ultra ueitae spiritum. 
docta, erodita paene Musarum manu, 
quae modo nobihum ludos decoraui choro 
et graeca in scaena prima populo apparui. 
en hoc in tumulo cinerem nostri corporis 
iiifistae Parcae deposierunt carmine, 
studium patronae, cura, amor, laudes, decus 
silent ambusto corpore et leto tacent. 
reliqui fletum nata genitori meo 
et antecessi, genita post, leti diem, 
bis hie septeni mecum natales dies 



96 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions, 

tenebris tenentur Ditis aeterna domn. 
rogo ut discedens terrain mihi dicas lenem. 

Early forms on this graceful inscription are quel, ubei, 
heic, and the like. Deposierunt shews the older perfect 
of pono, posivi (posii), which was in Classical Latin sup- 
planted hj posiii; see on p>oseiiiei, No. 44. 

Erodita is a pseudo-archaism, for the genuine ancient 
spelling was, like the classical, with u ; cf . exfociont on 
the Columna Eostrata, No. 31. 

Infistae may with its i indicate the close sound of e in 
infestus. 

Domus is declined according to the 5th Decl. in 1. 1 and 
1. 19 ; but in all the early writers we never find it other 
than a Second Declension Noun ; cf . Gk. 8o/xos. 

LIX. Lex Eubria de Civitate Galliae Cisalpinae, on a 
bronze tablet found in the district of Placentia; 49 B.C. 
(CLL, I. 205.) 

. . . Qua de re qnisqne et aqno inGallia cis alpeina damnei 
infectei exformula restipularei satisue accipere nolet, et ab eo 
qnei ibei i(ure) d(eiciindo) p(raerit) postnlanerit, idque non 
k(alnniniae) k(aussa) se facere iurauerit: turn is quo d(e) 
e(a) r(e) inins aditnm erit enm qnei inins ednctns erit d(e) 
e(a) r(e) exformnla repromittere et, sei satis darei debebit, 
satis dare inbeto decernito. Qnei eornm ita non repromeisserit 
ant non satis dederit, seiqnid interim damni datnm factnm ne 
ex ea re ant ob e(am) r(em) eone nomine erit, qnam ob rem 
ntei damnei infectei repromissio satisne datio fierei [iubeatur'] 
postnlatnm erit, tnm mag(istratns) prone mag(istratn) Ilnir 



Classical Period, 97 

Illluir praefec(tus)ue, quoquomque d(e) e(a) r(e) inins aditum 
erit, d(e) e(a) r(e) ita ius deicito indicia dato iudicareque 
iubeto cogito, proinde atque sei d(e) e(a) r(e), quom ita pos- 
tulatnm esset, damnei infectei ex formula recte repromissum 
satisue datum esset. . . . dum Iluir Illluir i(ure) d(eicundo) 
praefec(tus)ue d(e) e(a) r(e) ius ita deicat curetue, ntei ea 
nomina et municipium colonia locus ineo iudicio, quod ex ieis 
quae proxsume s(cripta) s(unt) accipietur, includantur con- 
cipiantui', quae includei concipei s(ine) d(olo) m(alo) oportere 
ei nidebuntur, nequid ei quel d(e) e(a) r(e) aget petetue 
captionei ob e(am) r(em) aut eo nomine esse possit; neiue ea 
nomina quae ineainim qua formula, quae s(upra) s(criptae) 
s(unt), scripta sunt, aut Mutinam ineo iudicio includei con- 
cipei curet, nise iei, quos inter id indicium accipietur leisue 
contestabitur, ieis nominibus fuerint, quae in earum qua 
formula s(cripta) s(unt), et nisei sei Mutinae ea res agetur. 
Neiue quis mag(istratus) prone mag(istratu) neiue quis pro 
quo imperio potestateue erit intercedito neiue quid aliud facito, 
quo minus de ea re ita indicium detur iudiceturque. . . . 

The prevalence of ei- forms is in keeping with the 
archaic character of State inscriptions. 

Xotice the frequent junction of Prep, and Xoun, a 
practice maintained in Latin ]Mss. with more or less 
consistency to the eleventh century or later^ inGallia, 
inius^ etc. 

repromeisserit. On -ss- see § 25. 

LX. Lex Julia Municipalise on three bronze tablets, 
originally belonging to Heraclea in S. Italy; 45 b.c. 
{^CJ.L. I. 206.) 



98 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

. . . Qnod qnemquem li(ac) l(ege) profiterei oportebit, is, 
apud quern ea professio fiet, eius qnei profitebitur nomen et 
ea quae professus erit et quo die professns sit intabulas 
pnblicas referunda cnrato, eademqne omnia quae nteique in- 
tabulas rettnlerit ita intabulam in album referunda curato, 
idque aput forum et, quom frumentum populo dabitur, ibei 
ubei frumentum populo debitur cottidie maiorem partem diei 
propositum habeto, u(nde) d(e) p(lano) r(ecte) l(egi) p(ossit). 

Queiquomque frumentum populo dabit damdumue curabit, 
nei quoi eorum, quorum nomina li(ac) l(ege) ad co(n)s(ulem) 
pr(aetorem) tr(ibunum) pl(ebis) intabula inalbo proposita erunt, 
frumentum dato neue dare iubeto neue sinito. Quel ad uersus 
ea eorum quoi frumentum dederit, is in tr(itici) m(odios) I 
HS boo populo dare damnas esto eiusque pecuniae quel 
uolet petitio esto. 

. . . Quemquomque ante suum aedificium uiam publicam 
h(ao) l(ege) tueri oportebit, quel eorum eam uiam arbitratu 
eius aed(ilis), quoius oportuerit, non tuebitur, eam uiam 
aed(ilis), quoius arbitratu eam tuerei oportuerit, tuemdam 
locato. Isque aed(ilis) diebus ne minus X antequam locet 
aput forum ante tribunale suom propositum habeto, quam 
uiam tuendam et quo die locaturus sit et quorum ante aedifi- 
cium ea uia sit, Eisque, quorum ante aedificium ea uia erit, 
procuratoribusue eorum domum denuntietur facito se eam 
uiam locaturum et quodie locaturus sit. Eamque locationem 
palam in foro per q(uaestorem) urb(anum) eumue quel aerario 
praerit facito. Quamta pecunia eam uiam locauerit, tamtae 
pecuniae eum eosque, quorum ante aedificium ea uia erit 
proportioni, quamtum quoiusque ante aedificium uiae inlongi- 
tudine et inlatitudine erit, q(uaestor) urb(anus) queiue aerario 



Olassieal Period. 99 

praerit intabulas publicas pecuniae factae referendum curato. 
Ei, quel earn uiam tuemdam redemerit, tamtae pecuniae eum 
eosue ad tribuito sine d(olo) m(alo). Sei is quei ad tributus 
erit earn pecuniam diebus XXX proxumeis, quibus ipse aut 
procurator eius sciet adtributionem factam esse, ei, quoi ad 
tributus erit, non soluerit neque satis fecerit, is quamtae 
pecuniae ad tributus erit, tamtam pecuniam et eius dimidium 
ei, quoi ad tributus erit, dare debeto. Inque eam rem is quo 
quomque de ea re aditum erit iudicem iudiciumue ita dato 
utei depecunia credita iudicem iudiciumue dari oporteret. 

. . . Quae plostra noctu in urbem inducta erunt, quominus 
ea plostra inania aut stercoris ex portandei caussa post solem 
ortum h(oris) X diei bubus iumenteis ue iuncta in u(rbe) 
E(oma) et ab u(rbe) E(oma) p(assus) M esse liceat, e(ius) 
h(ac) l(ege) n(iliil) r(ogatur). 

. . . Quae loca serueis publiceis ab cens(oribus) habitandei 
utendei caussa ad tributa sunt, ei quominus eis loceis utantur, 
e(ius) h(ac) l(ege) n(iliil) r(ogatur). 

Queiquomque inmunicipieis coloneis praefectureis foreis con- 
ciliabuleis c(iuium) E(omanorum) Iluir(ei) Illluir(ei) erunt 
alioue quo nomine mag(istratum) potestatemue sufragio eorum, 
quei^ quoiusque municipi coloniae praefecturae fori conciliabuli 
erunt, habebunt, neiquis eorum quem in eo municipio colonia 
praefectura foro conciliabulo in senatum decuriones conscriptosue 
legito neue sublegito neue coptato neue recitandos curato nisi 
indemortuei damnateiue locum eiusue quei confessus erit se 
senatorem decurionem conscreiptumue ibei li(ac) l(ege) esse non 
licere. 

. . . Qui pluribus inmunicipieis coloneis praefectureis domi- 
cilium habebit et is Eomae census erit, quo magis in municipio 



100 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

colonia praefectura h(ac) l(ege) censeatur, e(ius) h(ac) l(ege) 
ii(iliil) r(ogatur). 

Qnei lege pl(ebei) ue sc(ito) permissns est fuit, utei leges 
in municipio fnndano municipibusue eius municipi daret, sei 
quid is post li(anc) l(egem) r(ogatam) ineo anno proxumo, quo 
li(ano) l(egem) popnlus iiiserit, adeas leges addiderit commu- 
taiierit conrexerit, mnnicipis fundanos item teneto, utei oporterit, 
sei eas res abeo turn, qnom primum leges eis municipibns lege 
pl(ebei) ue sc(ito) dedit, adeas leges additae commutatae con- 
rectae essent. Neue quis intercedito neue quid facito, quo minus 
ea rata sint quoue minus municipis fundanos teneant eisque 
optemperetur. 

Julius Caesar, like Augustus and some succeeding 
Emperors, found time for the study of Grammar amidst 
the cares of government. We may be sure that the 
orthography of any of his laws would be carefully re- 
vised by him; so that we have here the way in which 
a Grammarian, who was at the same time a man of the 
world, judged that Latin words should be written in a 
formal document. That Caesar did not scruple to intro- 
duce the forms of spoken Latin into State inscriptions 
we know from the fact that it was he who effected the 
adoption of spellings like optimus, maximus (with i for 
the older ti) in inscriptions of the kind. (Quint. 1. vii. 21 
' optimus maximus,' ut mediam i litteram, quae veteribus 
u fuerat, acciperent, Gai primum Caesaris inscriptione 
traditur factum.) 

The Prep, and Noun (Adj.) often form a word-group, 
as in denuo (de novo)^ etc., e.g. intabulas. 



Classical Period, 101 

damnas is a form of damnatits affected in legal phrase- 
ology. It seems to represent an I-stem damnati-, like 
Sanates (a legal term for allies who had revolted but 
afterwards returned to their allegiance, ^ quasi sana 
mente ') beside sanati, Manes beside 0. Lat. mano- and 
the like. ^Damnatis became damnas, as the Plautine 
forms nostratis, Arpinatis, etc., became nostras, Arpinas. 

A curious spelling (due to an etymological theory ?) is 
the use of m for n in the Gerund and Gerundive, e.g. 
tuemdam, also in tamtam, etc. Notice also aput, on 
which see § 20. 

LXI. Glandes, found at Perusia; 41-40 b.c. {O.LL, 

I. 685, 692.) 

(a) L. Antoni Oalni peristi 0, Oaesarus uiotoria. 

(b) Esureis et me celas. 

These sentences were carved by soldiers on the leaden 
bullets which they shot against the defenders of Perusia, 
in the course of the long blockade of L. Antonius by 
Octavianus. They shew us how Latin was written by 
uneducated Eomans at that period. Notice the spelling 
esureis with ei for later i, and the retention in plebeian 
Latin of the old Gen. ending -os (-us) of the 3d DecL, 
Caesarus (§ 10). The first sentence has an echo of a 
Trochaic Septenarius. This was the popular metre at 
this time, and in uneducated hands was generally con- 
structed with regard to accent rather than to quantity. 

Two interesting monuments of Augustus follow, the 
official proclamation about the Ludi Saeculares, and the 
autobiographical notice of the Emperor. They should 



102 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

be compared with the Law of Julius Caesar (No. 60), 
and the Decree of the Emperor Claudius (No. 64). 

LXII. Commentarius Ludorum Saecularium, found 
recently in the bed of the Tiber. (Ephemeris Epigra- 
pMca, Yiii. ii.) 

. . . Lndique noctu sacrificio confecto sunt commissi in 
scaena quoi theatrnm adiectnm non fuit nnUis positis sedilibus, 
centnmqiie et X matronae qnibus dennntiatnm erat XVnirornm 
uerbis sellisternia habuernnt Innoni et Dianae dnabus sellis 
positis. 

K. lun. in Oapitolio bonem marem loni optimo maximo 
proprinm inmolanit imp. Oaesar Augustus, ibidem alterum 
M. Agrippa, precati autem sunt ita: 

luppiter optime maxime uti tibi in illeis libreis scriptum 
est quarumque rerum ergo quodque melius siet populo E. Quiri- 
tibus tibi hoc boue mare pulchro sacrum fiat te quaeso pre- 
corque ; cetera uti supra. 

Ad atallam fuerunt Oaesar Agrippa Scaeuola Sentius LoUius 
Asinius Gallus Eebilus. 

Deinde ludi Latini in theatre ligneo quod erat constitutum 
in campo secundum Tiberim sunt commissi, eodemque modo 
sellisternia matres familiae habuerunt, neque sunt ludi inter- 
missi iei qui noctu coepti erant fieri et edictum propositum. 

XV uir s. f. die. ; 

Oum bono more et proinde'celebrato frequentibus exsemplis, 
quandooumque iusta laetitiae publicae caussa fuit, minui luctus 
matronarum placuerit, idque tam soUemnium sacrorum ludorum- 
que tempore referri dihgenterque opseruari pertinere uideatur 



Classical Period. 103 

et ad honorem deorum et ad memoriam cultus eorum : statuimus 
offioi nostri esse per edictnm denuntiare feminis, uti luctum 
minuant. 

Noctu autem ad Tiberim sacrificium fecit dels Ilithyis libeis 
Villi popanis Villi pthoibus V 1 1 1 1 imp. Caesar Augustus ; pre- 
catus est hoc mode ; 

Ilithyia, utei tibei in illeis libreis scriptum est, quarumque 
rerum ergo, quodque melius siet p. E, Quiritibus, tibi Villi 
popanis et VMM libeis et VMM ptboibus sacrum fiat; te quaeso 
precorque. 

IV nonas lun. in Oapitolio inmolauit lunoni reginae bouem 
feminam imp, Caesar Augustus, ibidem alteram M. Agrippa et 
precatus est hoc mode : 

luno regina, uti tibi in illis libris scriptum est, quarumque 
rerum ergo quodque melius siet p. E. Quiritibus, tibi boue 
femina pulchra sacrum fiat ; te quaeso precorque. 

Deinde CX matribus familias nuptis, quibus denu[ntiatum 
fuit ut conuenirent, imp. Caesar Augustus] praeit in haec uerba : 

luno regina, ast quid est quod melius siet p. E. Quiritibus . . . 
Sacrificioque perfect© pueri XXVII quibus denuntiatum erat 
patrimi et matrimi et puellae totidem carmen cecinerunt ; eodem- 
que modo in Capitolio . . . 

Carmen composuit Q. Horatius Placcus. . . . 

In connection with this interesting record of Augustus' 
reign, the Carmen Saeculare of Horace should be read. 
atallam is obscure. The word has been connected with 
attaniis (ata7ius9), a vessel used for sacrificial purposes. 
It may be a Diminutive ; cf. Hispallus from Ilispanus, 

Notice the spellings quoi (the form in use even in 



104 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

Quintilian's time), illeis libels and the frequent use of 
ei, exsemplls, opseruari the phonetic spelling, while ohs- 
was the grammatical, pthoibus. The last example ex- 
hibits the normal mode of expressing a Greek aspirate 
group in classical Latin. We should write pthisis, not 
phthisis^ diptho7igus, not diphtliongus, etc. 

LXIII. The Monumentum Ancyranum or Ees Gestae 
Divi Augusti, from the wall of a temple at Ancyra 
(edited by Mommsen). 

Eerum gestarum diui Augusti, quibus orbem terrarum imperio 
populi Eom(ani) subiecit, et inpensarum, quas in rem publicam 
populumque Eomanuin fecit, incisarum in duabus aheneis pilis, 
quae sunt Eomae positae, exemplar subieotum. Ees publica ne 
quid detriment! caperet, me pro praetore simul cum consulibus 
prouidere iussit. Populus autem eodem anno me consulem, cum 
co(n)s(ul) uterque bello cecidisset, et trium uirum rei publicae 
constituendae creauit, 

Qui parentem meum interfecerunt, eos in exilium expuli iudi- 
ciis legitimis ultus eorum facinus, et postea bellum inferentis 
rei publicae uici bis acie. 

Bella terra et mari ciuilia externaque toto in orbe terrarum 
suscepi uictorque omnibus superstitibus ciuibus peperci. Exter- 
nas gentes, quibus tuto ignosci potuit, conseruare quam excidere 
malui. MilUa ciuium Eomanorum adacta sacramento meo fuerunt 
circiter quingenta. Ex quibus deduxi in colonias aut remisi 
in municipia sua stipendis emeritis millia aliquantum plura 
quam trecenta et iis omnibus agros a me emptos aut pecuniam 
pro praediis a me dedi. Naues cepi sescentas praeter eas, si 
quae minores quam triremes fuerunt. 



Classical Period. 105 

Bis oudns triumphaiii, tris egi curulis triumphos, et appellatus 
sum niciens semel imperator. Onm deinde pluris triumphos 
mihi senatus decreuisset, eis supersedi. Item saepe laurus de- 
posui, in Oapitolio uotis, quae quoque bello nuncupaueram, solutis. 
Ob res a me aut per legates meos auspicis meis terra marique 
prospere ^gestas quinquagiens et quinquiens decreuit senatus 
supplicandum esse dis immortalibus. Dies autem, per quos 
ex sendtus consulto supplicatum est, fuere DCCCLXXXX. In 
triumphis meis ducti sunt ante currum meum reges aut regum 
liberi nouem, Consul fueram terdeciens, cum scribebam haec, at 
agebam septimum et trigensimum annum tribuniciae potestatis. 

Dictaturam et apsenti et praesenti mihi datam ... a populo 
et senatu M. Marcello et L. Arruntio consulibus non accepi. 
Hon recusaui in summa frumenti penuria curationem annonae, 
quam ita administraui, ut . . . paucis diebus metu et periclo 
quo erat populum uniuersum meis impensis liberarem. Oonsu- 
latum tum datum annuum et perpetuum non accepi. 

Patriciorum numerum auxi consul quintum iussu populi et 
senatus. Senatum ter legi. In consulatu sexto censum populi 
conlega M. Agrippa egi. Lustrum post annum alterum et qua- 
dragensimum feci. Quo lustro ciuium Eomanorum censa sunt 
capita quadragiens centum millia et sexaginta tria millia. 
Iterum consulari cum imperio lustrum solus feci 0. Oensorino 
et 0. Asinio cos. Quo lustro censa sunt ciuium Eomanorum 
capita quadragiens centum millia et ducenta triginta tria millia. 
Tertium consulari cum imperio lustrum conlega Tib. Oaesare 
Alio feci Sex. Pompeio et Sex. Appuleio cos. Qao lustro censa 
sunt ciuium Eomanorum capitum quadragiens centum millia 
et nongenta trigenta et septem millia. Legibus nouis latis com- 



106 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions, 

plura exempla maiorum exolescentia iam ex nostro usu reduxi et 
ipse mnltarum rerum exempla imitanda posteris traditi. 

Vota pro ualetudine mea suscipi per consules et sacerdotes 
quinto quoque anno senatus decreuit. Ex iis uotis saepe fece- 
runt uiuo me ludos aliqnotiens sacerdotum qnattuor amplissima 
collegia aliquotiens consnles. Priuatim etiam et municipatim 
uniuersi ciues sacrificauerunt semper apud omnia pnluinaria pro 
ualetudine mea. 

Nomen meum senatus consulto inclusum est in saliare car- 
men, et sacrosanctus ut essem . . . et ut quoad uiuerem, tribu- 
nicia potestd^s mihi esset, lege sanctum est. Pontifex maximus 
ne fierem in uiui conlegae locum, populo id sacerdotium deferente 
mihi, quod pater mens habuit, recusaui. Oepi id sacerdotium 
aliquod post annos eo mortuo qui ciuilis motus occasione occu- 
pauerat, cuncta ex Italia ad Oomitia mea . . . tanta multitudine, 
quanta Eomae nunquam antea fuisse fertur, coeunte P. Sulpicio 
0. Valgio consulibus. 

Aram Portunae reduci iuxta aedes Honoris et Yirtutis ad 
portam Oapenam pro reditu meo senatus consacrauit, in qua 
pontifices et uirgines Vestales anniuersarium sacrificium facere 
iussi die, quo consulibus Q. Lucretio et M. Vinucio in urbem ex 
Syria redi, et diem Augustalia ex cognomine nostro appellauit. . . . 

The spelling of an inscription of this sort would, we 
may be sure, be carefully looked after; for Augustus 
was noted for his attention to orthography and other 
points of grammar. The apex of deduxi shev/s us that 
the u of the Perf. of duco was pronounced long like the 
u of the Pres. (cf. Mstrum). Notice apsenti (cf. opserua.ri 
of the Comm. Lud. Saec). 



Classical Period. 107 

LXIV. Inscription of the Emp. Claudius at Lyons. 

. . . Equidem primam omnium illam cogitationem hominum 
quam maxime primam occursuram mihi prouideo, Deprecor, ne 
quasi nouam istam rem introduci exhorrescatis, sed ilia potius 
cogitetis quam multa in hio ciuitate nouata sint et quidem 
statim ab origine urbis nostrae in quod formas statusque res 
p(ublioa) nostra diducta sit. 

Quondam reges banc tenuere urbem, neo tamen domesticis 
successoribus eam tradere contigit, Superuenere alieni et qui- 
dam extern! ut Numa Eomulo successerit ex Sabinis ueniens, 
uicinus quidem, sed tunc externus ; ut Anco Marcio Prisons Tar- 
quinius, propter temeratum sanguinem, — quod patre Demaratho 
Oorintbio natus erat et Tarquiniensi mdtre generosd sed inopi 
ut quae tali marito necesse habuerit succumbere, — cum domi 
repelleretur i gerendis honoribus, postquam Eomam migrauit 
regnum adeptus est. Huic quoque et filio nepotiue eius, nam 
et hoc inter auctores discrepat, insertus Seruius Tullius, si 
nostros sequimur captiua natus Ocresia, si Tuscos Oaeli quondam 
Viuennae sodalis fidelissimus omnisque eius casus comes ; post- 
quam uaria fortuna exdctus cum omnibus reliquis OaeUani exer- 
citus Etrurid excessit montem Oaelium occupauit et aduce suo 
Gaelic ita appellitatus mutatoque nomine, nam Tusce Mastarna 
ei nomen erat, ita appellatus est ut dixi, et regnum summa cum 
rei p(ublicae) utilitate optinuit. Deinde, postquam Tarquini Su- 
perbi mores inuisi ciuitati nostrae esse coeperunt qua ipsius qua 
filiorum eius, nempe pertaesum est mentes regni et ad consules 
annuos magistratus administratio rei p(ublicae) trdnslata est. 

Quid nunc commemorem dictaturae hoc ipso consuMri im- 
perium ualentius repertum apud maiores nostros quo in asperiori- 
bus bellis aut in ciuili motu difflciliore utereutur, aut in auxilium 



108 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

plebis creates tribunes plebei ? Quid dcensulibus ad decemuires 
transldtum imperium, seluteque postea decemuirali regno ad 
consules rusus reditum ? Quid in pluris distributum censulare 
imperium tribunesque militum consulari imperio appellatos. qui 
seni et saepe octeni crearentur ? Quid cemmunicatos postremo 
cum plebe honores nen imperi solum sed sacerdotiorum quoque ? 
lam si narrem bella i quibus coeperint maiores nostri et quo 
processerimus, uereor ne nimio insolentior esse uidear et quae- 
sisse iactationem gloriae prolati imperi ultrd oceanum, sed illoc 
potius reuertar ciuitatem . . . potest sane nouo more et diuus 
Augustus auonculus mens et patruus Ti, Oaesar omnem florem 
ubique colonidrum ac municipiorum bonorum scilicet uirorum 
et locupletium in liac curia esse uoluit. Quid ergo ! non Italicus 
senator prouinciali potior est? lam nobis cum banc partem 
censurae meae adprobdre coepero quid de eare sentiam rebus 
ostendam, sed ne prouinciales quidem simodo ornare curiam 
poterint reiciendos puto. 

Orndtissima ecce colonia ualentissimaque Viennensium quam 
longo iam tempore senatores huic curiae confert, ex qua colonia 
inter paucos equestris ordinis ornamentum L. Vestinum fami- 
liarissime diligo et hodieque in rebus meis detineo, cuius liberi 
fruantur, quaeso, prime sacerdotiorum gradu, post raodo cum 
annis promoturi dignitatis suae incrementa. Ut dirum nomen 
latronis taceam, et odi illud palaestricum prodigium quod ante 
in domum consulatum intulit quam colonia sua solidum ciuitatis 
Eomanae benificium consecuta est. Idem de frdtre eius possum 
dicere miserabili quidem indignissimoque hoc cdsu ut nobis utilis 
senator esse non possit. 

Tempus est iam, Ti. Oaesar Germanice, detegere te patribus 
conscriptis quo tendat oratio tua ; iam enim ad extremes fines 
Galliae Narbonensis uenisti. 



Classical Period. 109 

Tot ecce insignes iuuenes quot intueor non magis sunt paeni- 
tendi senatores quam paenitet Persicum nobilissimum uirum ami- 
cum meum inter imagines maiorum suorum Allobrogici nomen 
legere. Quod si haec ita esse consentitis quid ultra desideratis 
quam ut uobis digito demonstrem solum ipsum ultra fines pro- 
uinciae Narbonensis iam nobis senatores mittere quando ex Lugu- 
duno habere nos nostri ordinis uiros non paenitet. Timide 
quidem, p(atres) c(onscripti), egressus adsuetos familiares que 
uobis prouinciarum terminos sum, sed destricte iam comatae 
Galliae causa agenda est, inqua siquis hoc intuetur quod bello 
per decem annos exercuerunt diuom lulium, idem opponat centum 
annorum immobilem fidem obsequiumque multis trepidis rebus 
nostris, plusquam expertum illi patri meo Druso Germaniam 
subigenti tutam quiete sua securamque atergo pacem praestite- 
runt, et quidem cum adcensus nouo tum opere et in ad sueto 
Gallis ad bellum auocatus esset, quod opus quam arduum sit 
nobis nunc cum maxime, quam uis nihil ultra quam ut publice 
notae sint facultates nostrae exquiratur, nimis magno experi- 
mento cognoscimus. 

Claudius, too, made a hobby of grammatical studies, so 
that this inscription is valuable evidence for the orthog- 
raphy of the period. The account of Servins Tullius is 
an interesting contribution to early Roman history. 
luTotice narrem, dixi, which shew that the first syllable 
in each of these words had a long vowel. (Cf . on naro, 
No. 73.) 

The eruption of Vesuvius in 79 a.d. destroyed Hercu- 
laneum and Pompeii. In the ruins of Herculaneum a 
collection of papyrus rolls, the books of the period, was 



110 Handhooh of Latin Inscriptions. 

found, some of them in Latin. At Pompeii, besides act- 
ual inscriptions, many ^ graffiti,^ i.e. sentences scratched 
on a wall by idlers, have come to light. They shew the 
careless illiterate spelling of the day, as the papyri the 
literary orthography. 

LXV. Herculanean Papyrus, containing the ^Incerti 
de Augusti Bello Aegyptiaco Carmen' (ed. Baehrens, 
Poet, Lat Min, vol. i., p. 218). 

. . . Praeberetque suae spectacnla tristia mortis. 
Qnalis adinstantis acies cum tela parantur, 
Signa, tnbae, classesque simul terrestribus armis, 
Est facies ea uisa loci cum saeua coirent 
Instrumenta necis uario congesta paratii. 
Undique sic illuo campo deforme coactum 
Omne uagabatur leti genus, omne timoris 

. . . Aut pendente suis ceruicibus aspide, moUem 
Labitur in somnum traliiturque libidine mortis. 
Perculit afBatu breuis hunc sine morsibus anguis 
Volnere seu tenui; pars inlita parua ueneni 
Ocius interemit, laqueis pars cogitur artis 
Intersaeptam animam pressis effundere uenis. 
Immersisque freto clauserunt guttura fauces. 

... nee urbem 
Opsidione tamen nee corpora moenibus arcent, 
Oastraque promuris atque arma pedestria ponunt. 

Hos intercoetus talisque ad bella paratus 
Utraque soUemnis iterum reuocauerat orbes. 
Oonsiliis nox apta ducum, lux aptior armis. 



Classical Period. Ill 

LXVI. Pompeian Graffiti. 

(1) Accompanying a picture of gladiators. (C.LL. 
IV. 538.) 

Tetraites Prudes , . . Abiat Venere Bompeiiana iratam qui hoc 
laesaerit. 

Tetraites, Prudens . . . Hdbeat Venerem Pompeianam 
iratam qui Jioc laeserit. 

The famous gladiator Tetraites, or in the Oscan form 
Petraites, is known from Petronius, c. 52 : nam Her- 
merotis pugnas et Petraitis in poculis habeo, and c. 71 : 
valde te rogo, ut secundum pedes statuae meae catellam 
fingas et coronas et unguenta et Petraitis omnes pugnas. 

Misspellings like abiat, with mute h and confusion of 
e and i, laesaerit, with confusion of ae and e, reflect the 
pronunciation of the populace (partly G-reek, partly Os- 
can, partly foreign and servile) of Pompeii. In time these 
depraved forms found their way into the speech of the 
capital, and at last even into literary Latin (§ 26). 

(2) (C.I.L. IV. 650.) 

Gauium Eufum Iluir(um) o(ro) f(aciatis). 
Gdvio- is the Oscan form of the name Gaio-, 

(3) {C.I.L. IV. 882.) 

Pilocalus uotum sol(uit) libes merito. 
On libes for libens see § 22. 

(4) Trochaic Septenarius, on wall of room in house of 
Sallust. {C.I.L. IV. 1234.) 



112 Handhooh of Latin Inscriptions, 

Bupa que bela is tibi me misit qui tuus est uale. 
pupa, quae bella es, tibi me misit qui tuus est : uale. 
On que for quae, cf. laesaerit above (1). 

(5) Lines from Ovid, A.A. i. 475 sq., on the wall of a 
law-court. (C.I.L. iv. 1895.) 

quid pote tan durum saxso aut quid moUius unda? 
dura tamen moUi saxsa cauantur aqua. 

Ovid's lines begin : quid magis est saxo durum aut, etc. 
On xs for x see on saxsum, No. 45. 

Tan for tarn may reflect the vague sound of final -m, 
which shewed its presence only in the nasal tone it gave 
to the preceding vowel (§ 20), or it may be due to the 
pronunciation in one word-group of the Adv. and Adj. 
tarn-durum. Cf. etiannunc for etiam nunc, a spelling 
mentioned by Roman Grammarians and found on a Her- 
culanean papyrus. 

(6) Lines on the wall of a law-court. (G.LL. iv. 1824.) 

quisquis amat, ueniat. Veneri uolo frangere costas 

fustibus et lumbos debilitare deae. 
si potest ilia mihi tenerum pertundere pectus, 
quit ego non possim caput illae frangere fuste? 

V. 3. potest, though not allowed by the classical poets, 
no doubt represented the everyday pronunciation at this 
time, as it did in the time of Plautus and the early Dram- 
atists, who freely admit this scansion. 

v. 4. quit (= quid, § 20), to be metrical, should be cur; 
illae was a current by-form of illi, Dat. Sg. Fern. 



Classical Period. 113 

(7) Lines on the wall of a law-court. (C.LL. iv. 2487.) 

admiror, paries, te non cecidisse ruina, 
qui tot scriptorum taedia sustineas. 

This is a specimen of the correct Latin of the time, 
differing in no respect from the orthography of our text- 
books. 



CHAPTER IV. 

IMPERIAL AND LATE LATIN. 

26. To this period belongs the gradual decay of Latin, 
and its passage into the Eomance languages of modern 
Europe. It is, unfortunately, hardly possible to get from 
inscriptions a clear and connected account of the down- 
ward progress of the language. For it was from the 
spoken language of the Roman Provinces that the 
Romance languages arose ; while it is the . written or 
literary language that is presented to us, more or less 
correctly according to the education of the maker of 
the inscription, or the locality to which it belongs, in 
inscriptions and in documents. It is the deviations from 
standard Latin on these inscriptions which give us a 
glimpse at the actual spoken Latin of the place and 
time; but this spoken language, Vulgar-Latin as it is 
usually called, never wholly reveals itself to us until it 
appears as a fully developed Romance language — Italian, 
French, Spanish, and the like. A Latin word like bibit 
is, in Italian, beve, the Latin ^ having been replaced 
by e (close e, the vowel of French ete), and the Latin 
intervocalic h by v, while the t, at first retained before 
a vowel initial (cf. Fr. ''A vien(t),' but ^vient-il?'; 41 
a' but ^a-t-il?'), has finally been dropped in all circum- 
stances. The pronunciation beve(t) (with v sounded like 
our w) was probably a very old one, but the only trace of 

114 



Imperial and Late Latin, 115 

it that we could expect to find on an inscription would 
be that the word would now and then be written bebit, 
or bibet or bive, or bevi, or even (the phonetically correct 
spelling) beve, though in the great majority of instances 
it would be written in accordance with the rules of the 
grammatical handbooks of the time, hibit. It is, then, 
to the faulty spellings of late Latin inscriptions that we 
must look for information about the actual spoken lan- 
guage of the period. 
27. Here are the chief faults that we find : — 

(1) e and ae (also oe) are confused. 

(2) e and i, o and u, are confused. 

(3) final consonants are dropped; m, e.g. vino (Ital. 
vino) for viniim, pace (Ital. pace) for pacem ; s, e.g. 
advocato (Ital. advocato) for advocatics ; t, e.g. Ital. beve 
(see above). 

(4) hand in hand with this loss of the case-endings 
went the confusion of cases and the expression of all 
cases by one case-form. 

To distinguish the Gen. and Dat. a Prep, was used, 
e.g. de vino Gen., a{d) vino Dat. (Fr. de vin and a vin). 

(5) 6 and v are confused. 

(6) h is wrongly omitted or inserted. 

(7) X and s are confused. 

(8) ct and tt (t) are confused. 

(9) c and q are confused. 

(10) In the Verb, Auxiliaries like haheo, vado, take the 
place of Tense suffixes. 

(11) / for Gk. <i>. By the fifth century a.d. Gk. <;!> 
had become a spirant, as it is in mod. Gk. 



116 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

(12) ci and ti are confused when a vowel follows. 

(13) so and ss are confused before e, i. 

(14) i(e) was prefixed to initial st, sp, sc. 

28. The change in the pronunciation of c before the 
e and i vowels is an important change. In speaking of it 
we must carefully distinguish between c in a word like 
centum, civitas, and c in a word like uncia. It was in the 
latter class of words where d (ce) was followed by a 
vowel that the assibilation of c first began. Ti (te) in 
a similar situation was assibilated in the same way, so 
that nuntius, uncia, etc., came to be pronounced as a 
disyllabic with some s-sound at the beginning of the 
second syllable. The Eomance words from Latin platea, 
a (wide) street, may be cited as examples of the change, 
Ital. piazza. Span, plaza, Fr. place. This palatalization 
of ti and ci in hiatus (i.e. before another vowel) may be 
referred to the fourth and fifth centuries a.d. The assibi- 
lation of c (not t) before e, i, when these vowels were 
followed by a consonant, came much later, about the sixth 
and seventh centuries (cf . Ital. cento, citta, with c sounded 
like our ch of ^ church,' Fr. cent, cite). G assumed before 
e, i the sound of 2/ at a somewhat earlier period; and 
before other vowels g became, when pretonic, a mere spi- 
rant like g of German ^Tage,' and so is often omitted in 
writing, e.g. frualitas for frugalitas, A(u)(g)ustus, whence 
Fr. Aout. (See my Hist. Gram. ch. ii. § 7.) 

29. Another change that passed over the language was 
the gradual loss of the distinction of quantity under the 
influence of the stress accentuation. An accentuated 
vowel, we may roughly say, became long, an unaccented, 



Imperial and Late Latin. 117 

sliort; e.g. orator, piper for orator, piper. Or rather 
the different vowels of a word came to have more or 
less the same length (much as is the case in modern 
Italian), and the distinction between vowels was rather 
qualitative than quantitative. E was 'close' e (rather 
than ' long ' e) and was merged in the neighbouring sound 
I, E was ^open' e (rather than ^ short' e) and was 
merged in ae. So with u and o. Quantitative Metre 
thus became an artificial branch of poetry, no longer 
reflecting the actual educated pronunciation, and Ac- 
centual Metre takes its place more or less completely 
according to the education of the writer. 

30. Syncope, too, attacked every short post-tonic or pre- 
tonic syllable and changed the whole aspect of the lan- 
guage. Lat. vetidus became vetlus, veclus (Ital. vecchio), 
simia became simya (Pr. singe), apium became apyum 
(Fr. ache), cambiare became cambi/are (Fr. changer). 
(Hist. Gram. ch. ii. § 7.) This fact must be borne in 
mind in reading the rude accentual or half-accentual 
metres of later Latin; e.g. pronounce potyones CSo. 69). 



LXYII. Wax-Tablet relating to the abolition of a 
^collegium funeraticium,' Dacia, 167 a.d. (CI.L. hi. 
ii. p. 927.) 

. . . lulinm Inli quoqne commagistrum suum ex die magisteri 
sui non accessisse ad Alburnum neque in coUegio : seq^ne eis qui 
presentes fuerunt rationem reddedisse et si quit eorum abuerat 
reddedisset sine funeribus et cautionem suam in qua eis cauerat, 
recepisset! modoque autem neque funeraticis sufficerent neque 
loculum aberet neque quisquam tarn magno tempore diebus 



118 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

quibns legi continetur connenire noluerint aut conferre funera- 
ticia sine nmneraj seque idcirco per hiinc libellum publice 
testantnr, ut, si quis defunctus fuerit, ne pntet se collegium 
abere aut ab eis aliqiiem petitionem funeris abiturum. . . . 

Late spellings are presentes, reddedisse, etc., abuerat, 
etc. On quit for quid, see § 20. 

LXVIII. Epitaph, in rude Hexameters on a Pannonian 
soldier. Found at Eome. End of second century a.d. 
(Eph. Epigr, iv. 346, 936.) 

respice praeteriens, niator, consobrini pietate parata; 
cum lacrimis statui, quanto in munere posto uidetis. 
Pannonia terra creat, tnmulat Italia tellns. 
annis XXVI, nt sibi castris honorem atqnireret ipse, 
dolori magno substentauit tempore longo. 
postea cum sperans dolorem effugisse nefandam, 
ante diem meritum huno demersit at Styga Pluton. 
quotsi fata eo sinuissent luce uidere, 
ista prius triste munus posui dolore repletus, 
munus inane quidem. terra nunc diuidit ista 
ossua sub titulo potius. tu opta, uiator, 
cum pietate tua ipso terra leue, nobis fortuna beata, 
ex qua tu possis obitus bene linquere nato 
Val. Antonius et Aur. Victorinus liered(es) Ulpio Quintiano 
eq(uiti) sing(ulari) ben(e) mer(ito) posuer(unt). 

1. 2. quantum in munere positum, 1. 4. A service of 
25 years would entitle him to a ' missio honesta.' 1. 6. 
cum sperans, ^when hoping.' 1. 8. eum sivissent lucem 
videre. 1. 12. ipsi terram levem, nobis fortunam beatam. 
1. 13. natum. 



Imperial and Late Latin, 119 

LXIX. Epitaph in rude Hexameters from Carthage. 
End of second century a.d. or later. (O.I.L viii. 1027.) 

VitaHs Aug. n(ostri) tabellarius, uiuet et conniuat. Et Anti- 
gona, niuet et conuiuatur. 

dum sum Vitahs et uiuo, ego feci sepulcrhum 
adque meos uersus, dum transseo, perlego et ipse, 
diploma circaui totam regione pedestrem 
et canibus prendi lepores et denique uulpes. 
postea potiones caliois perduxi libenter, 
multa iuuentutis feci, quia sum moriturus. 
quisque sapis iuuenis, uiuo tibi pone sepulorhum, 

This thoroughly pagan epitaph of a lusty postman, 
who bore the not inappropriate name of Vitalis, has 
some points of linguistic interest. Notice (1) the doubt 
about the spelling of the chr of sejndchrum, (2) adque 
for atque, (3) the pronunciation of Gk. StTrXwfxa as di- 
ploma, the stress accent on the first sjdlable having 
shortened the second as in ]Mod. Greek, and its declen- 
sion in everyday speech as a Latin A-stem (cf. schema, 
-ae, Plant.), (4) trisyllabic potyones (§ 30), etc., etc. In 
V. 7. quisque has its 0. Lat, sense of quicunque ; v. 3, 
circare (for circuire) is the prototype of Er. chercher; 
regioneCm) pedestrem is the district assigned to the foot 
postal service as opposed to the mail-coach service. 

LXX. Acrostic epitaph in rude Hexameters, from 
Tunis. Second or third century a.d. (C.I.L. viii. 152.) 

Urbanilla mihi coniunx uerecundia plena hie sita est 
Komae comes negotiorum socia parsimonio fulta, 



120 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions. 

bene gestis omnibus cum in patria mecum rediret, 

an miseram Carthago mihi eripnit sociam. 

nulla spes niuendi mihi sine coniuge tali: 

ilia domum seruare meam, ilia et consilio iuuare. 

luce priuata misera quescit in marmore clusa. 

Lucius ego coniunx hie te marmore texi 

Anc nobis sorte dedit fatu, cum luci daremur. 

1. 4. au, Inte^j. 1. 9. hanc nobis sortem dedit fatum. 

LXXI. Epitaph in Hexameters from Nicopolis on the 
Danube. Third century. {C.I.L. in. 754; suppl. 7436.) 

floribus ut saltem requiescant membra iucundis 

Aeliae carae mihi nunc hoc inclusae sepulcro, 

regina Ditis magni regis, precor hoc te — 

nam meruit haec multa suis pro laudibus a me — 

inmeritae propere soluentem fila dearum, 

quae globo Parcarum reuoluta cuncta gubernant. 

qualis enim fuerit uita, quam deinde pudica, 

si possem effari, cithara suadere ego Manes. 

haec primum casta, quot te audire libenter 

et mundi spatia, Ditis quoque regia, norunt. 

hanc precor Elysiis iubeas consistere campis 

et myrta redimire comas et tempera flore. 

Lar mihi haec quondam, haec spes, haec unica uita, 

et uellet quod uellem, nollet quoque ac si ego nollem, 

intima nulla ei quae non mihi nota fuere, 

nee labos huic defuit, nee uellerum inscia fila, 

parca manu set larga meo in amore mariti, 

nee sine me cibus huic gratus nee munera Bacchi, 



Imperial and Late Latin. 121 

consilio mira, cata mente, nobili fama. 
carmini, possessor, faueas preoor, ac precor ut tu 
hanc tituli sedem uelles decorare quodannis 
et foueas aeui momimeiitniii tempore grato, 
roscida si rosula seu grato flore amaranthi 
et multis generum pomis uariisque nouisque, 
ut possit toto refoneri temporis anno. 

1. 5. inmeritae, sc. Aeliae, soluentem, sc. reginam Ditis. 
1. 8. suadere = suaderem. 1. 9. quot = quod, cf . 1. 17. set. 
1. 21. quodannis. (§ 20.) 1. 24. for multum generum or 
multig. 

LXXII. Epitaph in Hexameters, from Eome. 348 
A.D. (Eossi, Inscr, Christ. Rom. i. 64, 101.) 

felix uita uiri, felicior exitns ipse. 
Oaiani semper crescit per saecula nomen, 
nescit fama mori sed semper nibit ubique. 
adnenit hospes princeps Eomanus in nrbem, 
qui fuit Mo primnm iuris consnltor amicus. 

Quiescit in paoem depositns diem qnartum nonas Augustas 
Flauio Pilippo et Flauio Sallea consulibus: pater Sabbatius 
fecit. 

1. 3. uibit = vivit (§ 27). 1. 4. In late poetry an initial 
h makes a preceding short syllable long by position. 
This was an arbitrary usage of poets in imitation of 
Virgil's terga fatigamus hasta, where, however, -mus is 
really a case of lengthening in arsi. Initial h was 
scarcely sounded at this period (§ 27). 1. 4. refers to 
Constantine. 1. 5. qui = cut 1. 7. Filippo (§ 27). 



122 Handhooh of Latin Inscriptions. 

LXXIII. Epitaph in rude Hexameters, from near 
Nola. 359 a.d. (O.J.Z. x. 1338.) 

semper ob meritum uincis praeconia landis 
et bona progenies quaeret tna fortia facta, 
rernm snmma coros melius exercendos docet. 
belle qnidem tua ex ordine gesta naremus; 
iam me nincet amor, nequeo tenere dolorem. 
laeta qnidem semper Felicis nomine dncta, 
laetior nt essis iacis in pace fidelis, 
abis nt decnit Felicis pace perennem 
Eusebio et Tpatio coss. dep(osita) in p(ace) VI kal. Inn, 

Notice the acrostic formed by the initial letters of each 
line, Serbillae. 1. 2. fortia facta, the current Latin phrase 
for our ^doughty deeds.' Cf. Virg. Aen. x. 369 : — 

Per vos et fortia facta, 

Per ducis Euandri nomen devictaque bella. 

1. 3., i.e. in heaven. 1. 4. naro is a spelling recom- 
mended by various Eoman Grammarians (cf. gndrus). 
(See ndrre7n, No. 64.) 1. 7. essis = esses, iacis = iaces 
(§ 27). 1. 8. abis = habes (§ 27). 

LXXIV. Epitaph in rude Hexameters, from EomOi 
Fourth century a.d. (0,LL. vi. 30123.) 

. . . panels] mensibns actis 
post nnptias, tenero per qnam bidnatns amore est, 
casta cni coinx c[nbilia sernat amorem] 
posteris ostendens, nlli si credere fas est. 
patre repngnante propio hec nomine signat 
nobercam nincens. fame nomen nbiqnem. 



Imperial and Late Latin. 123 

1.2. biduatus=mc?tia^i(5. 1.3. cuL 1.5. The father, at 
the step-mother's instigation, refused to go to the expense 
of a tomb, propio =proprio. The sound of r in two suc- 
cessive syllables was unpleasing to the Eomans. Hence 
increbesco for increbresco, praestigiae for praestrigiae^ etc. 
(p. 25 ; Hist. Gram. ch. ii. § 18.) hec = haec. 1. 6. nober- 
cdLm=novercam, fame, etc., for/amae sec^ nomen ubique (est). 

LXXy. Epitaph in rude Hexameters, from Syria. 
Fourth or fifth century. (C.IL. in. 124). 

sede sub hac recubat clarus praetorique praefectus 
Maiorinos uirtute caelebratus magna per orbem. 
haeo illi nuc requies fati, haec sedis aeterna 
Pilippi extructa studiis gratique nepotis. 

1. 2. Maiorinos = Maiovplvos. caelebratus = celebratus. 
1. 3. nuc = nunc. 1. 4. Pilippi = Philippi. 

LXXVI. Epitaph of a bishop in rude Hexameters. 
Algiers. — 440 a.d. (C.I.L. viii. 8634.) 

hie iacet antistes sanctusque Nouatus 

ter denos et VII sedis qui meruit annos. 

precessit die X kal. Septb. (anno) pr(ouinciae) OOOOI. 

LXXVII. Epitaph in rude Hexameters, from the dis- 
trict of the Hirpini, 469 a.d. (Not. Scav. 1893, p. 422.) 

hie Lucianus eum bona paee quiescit. 

innoees mansuetus mites letus eum amicis amicus 

uixit annis pl(us) m(inus) L nulla manente querella 

depositus est in paee die . . kl. Septembres Flabio Marciano 
et Zenone u(iris) [el. eons.]. 



124 Handlooh of Latin Inscriptions, 

LXXVIII. From a sermon of Avitus, archbishop of 
Vienne, delivered on the consecration of a church at 
Annemasse, near Geneva, c. 520 a.d. The sermon is 
preserved in a papyrus Ms. of the sixth century in the 
Bibliotheque Rationale, Paris. 

Habeat hie caelestis cultur reditns suos, legat hie de laeri- 
marnm riu[lis] manepolos gaudiornm. Exeguetas praesentes 
tabernaenU reponendi satis est ampla mereidi ; quamuis iniiltiim 
orreis snllereia rurahs apponet, spiritalis tamen feeundetas frue- 
tns hie eongregat . . . quia hodiae Zaeeheus noster Abrahae sui 
fiUns deelaratur, hie ehristus eum gaudio mansur permansurus 
exeipetur; hie iuxta eiiangehi regolam pauperebus thesaurus 
aperitur. Salus quae faeta est hodie domieiho ereseat et domino 
sic refeetione dupleeata germine benedieatur prouentibus uber- 
tatis terra temporaneis, uilla perpetuis; ilia pauperis nutriat, 
haec fidehs ; ibi corporum suppetat pastus, hie mentium ; quic- 
quid illic largitio sparserit, hie adunet oratio; et quia bene 
recognuscit hodie condetur meritum suum. Hospis eram et col- 
legistis me ; et quicquid f ecistis uni ex minimis meis mihi fecistis. 
Succedat Ohristus, hospicio introeat ; quod adtrahetur, suscipiat ; 
quod offertur, benedicat; quod instetuit, restituat; inuitetur 
uotis, teneatur factis, caedatur in sacrificiis, pascatur in paruolis, 

cultur = cultor; manepolos = manipulos ; praesentes = 
praesentis; mansur = mansor; recognuscit = recognosdt 

LXXIX. Epitaph of a bishop in rude Hexameters, 
from Spain. Early part of sixth centuryo (Eossi, Inscr, 
Christ. Earn. ii. 294, 3.) 

te loannem Tarraco coluit mirificum uatem 
tuosque in hoc loco in pace condidit artus. 



Imperial and Late Latin. 125 

in te libra morum, in te modestia tennit regnum, 
nitens eloquio mitissimus poUebas in corde 
gerens cnram pauperum, pietate preditns ampla. 
sanctus namqne nita, fide magnificentins ipse 
apparuisti cunctis pergens ad premia Ohristi. 
tunm nempe nomen tnamqiie dnlcissimam mentem 
laudabunt posteri, numquam abolenda per euum. 
merita praeconiis adtoUunt facta per saeclis. 
denis eqno libramzne 7'e??ieantibus lustris 
rector doctorque prefuisti monacis et popnlis 
octiens denes uita peragens feliciter annos. 

LXXX. Eude Hexameters from Algiers, 539 a.d. 
{C.LL, Yiii. 5352.) 
una et bis senas tnrres crescebant in ordine totas, 
mirabilem operam cite constructa nidetur. 
posticius sub termas balteo concluditur ferro. 
nullus malorum poterit erigere manum, 
patrici Solomonis institutionem nemo expugnare ualeuit. 
defensio niartirum tuetur posticius ipse, 
Clemens et Vincentius martires custodiunt introitum ipsum. 

The lines are scanned according to accent and numera- 
tion of syllables, but all sense of 'quantity^ is lost. 
Notice the barbarous use of the accusative for the nomi- 
native in 11. Ij 2. posticius = ^90 /ta postica. 

LXXXI. Epitaph in rude Hexameters, from Dalmatia. 
599 A.D. {C.LL, III. Suppl. 9527.) 

liic iacit lohannes peccatur et indignus 
presbiter. expleto annorum circulo quinto 
hunc sibi sepulcrum lohannis condere iussit 



126 Handhooh of Latin Jnscriptions. 

Marcellino suo pro consule nato 
germano praesente simul cunctosque nepotes. 
ornauit tumolnin mente fideli defunctus, 
accessit obsis una cum coniuge natis 
Anastasii seruans reuerenda limina sancti. 
tertio post decimum Augusti numero mensis 
ind(ictioiie) II praefininit saecnli diem. 

LXXXII. Epitaph of an Abbot, from Spain, 630 a.d. 
(Hlibner Inscr. Hisp. Christ 142.) 

haec tenet orna tunm nenerandum corpus Tlincenti abbatix 

set tua sacra tenet anima caeleste, sacerdos, 

regnum, mutasti in melius cum gaudia uite. 

martiris exempla signat, cuod membra sacrata 

demonstrante deo uatis hie repperit index. 

cuater decies cuinos et duos uixerat annos, 

misterium Ohristi mente sincera minister. 

raptus aetereas subito sic uenit ad auras, 

sic simul officium finis uitamcue remouit, 

spiritus adueniens domini cuo tempore sanctus 

in regionem piam uixit animamcue locabit. 

omnibus his mox est de flammis toUere flammas. 

obiit in p(ace) d. V id. Mart, era DCLXVIII. 

1. 1. abbatix = abbdtis. (§ 27.) orna = wiia, 1. 4. It is 
not clear what is referred to. 1. 7. misterium = mysteri- 
ovum, 1. 11. id^t = uexit; locahit = locauit. (§ 27.) 

LXXXIII. Attestation of witness to a grant to the 
Church at Eavenna, probably in the early part of the 
seventh cent. a.d. The document is in the Library of 
the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres. 



Imperial and Late Latin. 127 

Anastasius uir honestus Excabiss' hnic cliartule nsufructu- 
ariae donationis suprascriptarum sex unciarum principalium in 
integro snperniiniinate totius supstantie mubile et inmubile 
siseqnae monentibus, sicut superius legitur, facta in snprascripta 
sancta. Kavennate ecclesia a Johanne uiro clarissimo expathario, 
qui dicitnr, Georgio magistro militum et nnnc primicerius numeri 
filicnm Theudosiacus snprascripto denature, qui mi presente 
signum sancte cruois ficit et cora nubis ei reliota est, rogatus 
ab eodem testis suscribsi et de conserbandes omnibus que supe- 
rius adscripta leguntur ad sancta euangelia corporaliter mei 
presentia prebuit sacramenta et banc donatione ab eodem pre- 
dicto lohanne acture prenuminate sancte Kauennati aecclesie 
traditam uidi. 

mubile = mohilij sisequae = seseqiie, expathario = spa- 
tliario, like iscola (Fr. ecole) (§ 27), fioit= fecit, cora 
nubis = coram nobis, conserbandes = conservandis, 

LXXXIV. Judgment by Thierry III, King of the 
French, on a claim, by a woman named Acchildis against 
Amalgarius, of a portion of land, 679-680 a.d. The 
document is preserved in the Archives Rationales, Paris. 

Theudericus rex Prancorum, uir inluster. 

Cum ante dies in nostri uel procerum nostrorum presencia 
conpendio in palacio nostro ibique ueniens fimena nomene Acchil- 
dis Amalgario interpellauit, dum dicerit eo quod porcione sua 
in uilla Noncobanti Bactilione ualle, quern de parti genetrici 
sua Bertane quondam ligebus obuenire debuerat, post se malo 
ordene retenirit ; qui ipse Amalgarius taliter dedit in respunsis 
60 quod ipsa terra in predicto loco Bactilione ualle de annus 



128 Handbook of Latin Inscriptions, 

triginta et nno inter ipso Amalgario nel genetore sno Gaeltramno 
quondam semper temierant et possiderant, sic eidem nunc a 
nostris procerebus ipsius Amalgario fuissit, iudecatum ut de 
nouo denomenatus aput sex, sua mano septima, dies duos ante 
istas kalendas lulias in oraturio nostro super cappella domni 
Martine, ubi reliqua sacramenta percurribant, hoc dibirit coniu- 
rare quod antedicta terra in predicto loco Bactilione ualle inter 
ipso Amalgario uel genetore suo Gaeltramno de annus triginta 
et uno semper tenuissint et possedissint, nee eis diger numquam 
fuissit, nee aliut exinde non redebirit nisi edonio Sacramento. 
Sed ueniens antedictus Amalgarius ad ipso placito Lusareca 
in palacio nostro uno cum hamedius sues, ipso Sacramento iusta 
quod eidem fuit iudicatum et nostras equalis precepcionis locun- 
tur, in quantum inluster uir Dructoaldus comes palati noster 
testimuniauit ligibus uisus fuit adimplissit, et tam ipse quam 
et hamediae suae diliguas eorum derexsissint. Propteria iobi- 
mus ut ipsa porcione in predicto loco Bactilione uualle, unde 
inter eus orta fuit intencio, memoratus Amalgarius contra ipsa 
Accliilde uel suis heridibus omne tempore abiat euindecata. 

Odinberthus recognouit. 
Datum sub die segundo kalendas lulias annum vii rigni nostri 
Lusareca in dei nomene f [eliciter], 

LXXXV. Ehyming epitaph from the neighbourhood of 
Corduba. 7th cent. a.d. ? (Inscr, Hisp. Christ, 132.) 

hie Teudefredi condita 
membra quiescunt arida, 
- cujus origo fulgida ^ 
brebe refulsit indita. 



Imperial and Late Latin. 129 

LXXXVI. Judgment of Pepin^ Mayor of the Palace, 
awarding to Fulradus, Abbot of St. Denis^ property in a 
place called Curbriiis, in the province of Telle, against 
the claim of Eagana, Abbess of Sept Meules. 750 a.d. 
The document is preserved in the Archives Nationales, 
Paris. 

Cum resedissit inlnster uir Pippiniis, maiorem domus Atti- 
niaco in palacio publico ad uniuersorum causas audiendum uel 
recta indicia termenandnm, ibiqne neniens Fnlradns, abba de 
monastherio sancti domni Dionisii, nbi ipse preciosns domnns 
in corpore reqniescit, adnocato Eagane abbatissa nomene legitemo 
interpellabat, repetebat ei eo quod ipsa Kagana nel agentis 
monasterii sui Septemolas res sancti Dionisii post se malo nrdine 
retenebat iniuste in loco qui dicitur Onrbrins in pago Tellau, 
quem Ohairebaldus et coninx sua Aillerta per eornm testa- 
mentmn ad casa sancti Dionisii condonarnnt. Sed ipsi legitemns 
in presente adistabat et ibidem ostendebat cartas de nomene 
Francane, qualiter ipsasvres ad Septemolas condonassit. TJnde 
et nos ace causa pro ueretate inquesiuimus quod ipsas ris per 
drictum ad casa sancti Dionisii aderant et ipsi legitemns nulla 
habuit quod contra ipsa istrumenta sancti Dionisii dicere aut 
obponere dibuissit. Unde et de presente ipsa strumenta in 
onmibus ueraces esse dixit, et postea per suo uuadio ipsi Fulrado 
abbati de ipsas res in Ourborio per suo uuadio in causa sancti 
Dionisii uisus fuit reuestisse, et per suo fistugo sibi exinde dixit 
esse exitum tam pro se quam pro ipsius Eaganam abbatissa uel 
agentis monastherii sui Septemolas . . . Propteria iobemus ut, 
dum ac causa sic acta uel perpetrata fuit, ipsi Fulradus alba uel 
casa sancti Dionisii seo successoris sui ipsas ris in Oorborio, 
de quantum quod Ohairebaldus et coniux sua Aillerta per eorum 



130 Handlooh of Latin Inscriptions. 

istrumentum maniis potestadiuas ad casa sancti Dionisii condo- 
narunt contra ipsa Kagane abbatissa uel agentis monastlierii sni 
Septemolas uel in contra ipsins legitemo seo successoris eorum 
habiat enindicatas atqne elidiatas et sit inter eos in postmodum 
ex ac re omneque tempore snbita causacio. 

Umneramnns recognouit et snbscripsit. 

Notice ace and ac for hac (§ 27), a spelling which has 
caused much confusion in Mss. of Latin authors ; drictum 
(Fr. droit) ; uuadio with uu to express the sound of our w, 
now that Latin v (u) had passed into the sound of our v ; 
seo for seu (disyll.) 



INDEX. 



[numbers refer to pages.] 



Ablative Sing, in -d, 60, 68. 

Accent, 1 sqq.y 14 sg., 117 ; Sec- 
ondary, 16. 

Accented Metre, 15, 117. 

ad and at, 51. 

ae and e, 115. 

Aemilius Paulus, Decree of, 57. 

a/, 75. 

Aleria^ 41. 

Aletrium Temple Inscr., 83. 

alls for aliiiSy 93. 

Alphabet, earliest Latin, 8. 

Ancyranum Monumentum, 103. 

Apex, 76. 

ar- for ad-, 57, QQ. 

arf(iierunt) , QQ* 

aruorsiuriy 57. 

Arval Hymn (see Carmen Ar- 
vale). 

asomferOf 31. 

atallam, 103. 

Atilius Sarranus, inscr. of, 73 sq. 

Augusti Res Gestae (see Ancy- 
ranum) . 

Aurilms, 38. 

Auxiliary Verbs in Late Latin, 
116. 

Avitus, Sermon of, 125. 



h and v, 116. 

Bacchanalibus, S. C. de, 69 sqq. 

Bantia, Law of, 80. 

bourn, 16. 

Breves Breviantes, Law of, 48. 

c, the letter, 8 ; before e, z, 116. 
C. for Gains, 10. 
calecandam, 84. 
Capua, inscrr. of magistrates of, 

88 sq. 
Carmen Arvale, 25. 
Carmina Saliaria, 26. 
cena, 32. 
Cerus, 27. 
ci and ti, 116. 

circare (Fr. chercher), 120. 
Claudius, inscr. of Emp., 106 sqq. 
-clum and -culum, 55. 
Cn. for Gnaetis, 10. 
Columna Rostrata, 45 sq. 
Commentarius Ludorum Saecu- 

larium (see Lud.). 
conquaeisiuei, 76. 
contio, QQ. 
ct and tt, 116. 



d and t, 51. 



131 



132 



Index. 



-d in Abl. Sing., 50. 

Dacian Wax-tablet, 118. 

damnas, 100. 

danunt, 70. 

Declension, Early Latin, 11 ; 

Late Latin, 116. 
deda, 44. 
dedro, 44. 
deus, 16. 

Diphthongs, history of, 7, 47. 
diplbmay 120. 
domus, 96. 
Doubling, of consonant, 48 ; of 

vowel, 48. 
Duelonai, 63. 
DuenoSy 20. 
duntaxat, 82. 
duonuSf 40. 
Dvenos Bowl, 19. 

e, written for eU 9 ; and ae, 

115. 
ei and z, 47, 75. 
enos, 25. 

/, earliest form of letter, 8 ; for 

Gk. <^, 116. 
Taliscan Collegium Coquorum, 

inscr. of, 67. 
fefakedy 18. 
fifeltareSf 93. 
Eifth Declension, 92. 
fortia facta, 123. 
Eurfo Decree, 93. 

g, the letter, 9 ; before e, i, 117. 
Genitive Plur. in -orum, 40, 94. 
Gnaiuod, 42. 



gnatus, 52. 

graffiti, Pompeian (see Pomp.). 

h, initial, lengthens by position, 

122 ; loss of, 116. 
haud and hau, 51. 
Herculanean Papyrus, 110 sq. 
Herculaneus Pagus (see Pagus). 
hibus, 42. 
hie, Adv., 76. 
Hinnad, 38. 
huCy 69. 

lO-stems, Nom. Sing, of (see 

Nominative) . 
-i(s) for 'ius, 37, 93. 

jubeo, 65. 

Julia Municipalis Lex, 97 sqq. 

Julius Caesar, 100. 

^•, the letter, 9. 

I for II in milia, etc., 75, 95. 

Lases, 25. 

Law of Breves Breviantes (see 
Breves) ; of Accentuation (see 
Accent). 

Letters (see Alphabet). 

Leucesie, 27. 

Lex Repetundarum (see Rep.) ; 
Rubria (see Rub.) ; Julia Mu- 
nicipalis (see Jul.). 

Luceria inscr., 56. 

Ludorum Saecularium Commen- 
tarius, 101 sqq, 

-m, final, 32, 51. 



Index. 



133 



Maurte, 34. 

med, 50. 

Minervay 30. 

Monumentum Ancyranum (see 

Anc). 
Mummius, Dedicatory Inscrr. of, 

71 sqq. 

Tfiy dropped before s, /, 62. 

necesiis, 64. 

Nemi, inscrr. from, 32, 36, 38. 

neqiiinont, 70. 

ni and ne, 63. 

Nominative Sing, of lO-stems, 

37, 93. 
Numasioi, 18. 

became Uf when unaccented, 

16, 35 ; before ng, etc., 17. 
o and 2i in Late Latin, 115. 
Oinumama, 31. 
olorom, 46. 
oppidum, 84. 
Optative, 21, 56. 
oquoltod, 65. 
'Orum, Gen. Plur. (see Gen.). 

paastores, 76. 

Paenultima Law of Accentua- 
tion, 5. 

Pagus Herculaneus, Decree of, 
89. 

Parasitic Vowel, 35, 57. 

pmnsuma, 42. 

partim, 33. 

Paulus (see Aemilius Paul.). 

Picenum, inscr. of, 44 sq. 

Pisaurum, inscrr. of, 44 sq. 



poUuctum, 70. 

Pompeian graffiti. 111 sqq. 

pono, posuif 75. 

Popillius, milestone of, 74. 

poplicics, 65. 

Praeneste, inscrr. of, 28 sqq. 

Praenestine fibula, 18. 

Preposition written with Noun, 

33. 
prop(r)io, 124. 
Frosepnai, 30. 
pth, 103. 

q for qii, 21. 

qu for cu {qiiu), 88, 92. 

Quantity in Late Latin, 117. 

qiiiy Adv., 77. 

quoiei, 77. 

?' for d (see ar-) ; for s (see Rho- 

tacism) . 
Repetundarum Lex, 84. 
res divinaf 54. 
Res Gestae Divi August! (see 

Ancyranum). 
Rhotacism, 6. 
Romance languages, 114. 
Rostrata Columna (see Col.). 
Rubria Lex, 96. 

s and Xf 116 ; for ss in causa, 

etc., 95. 
-s final, 51. 
Saeturno-, 29. 
Salutus, 36. 
Saturnian Metre, 15. 
Scipio Epitaphs, 39, 76 sqq. 
sedf 50. 



134 



Index, 



seignum, 37. 
semuniSf 26. 



-um, Gen. Plur., 40, 94. 



Shortening of Final A 


^oweL 


3,48. 


V and 6, 116. 


siremps^ 83. 






-ue- for vb-y 52. 


souo- for SUO-, 68. 






Yertuleii, Dedicatory Tablet of. 


Spoletium inscr., 63. 






69. 


sto, 20. 






vicesma, 33. 


Sulla, inscrr. in honour of, 92 sq. 


Yowel-weakening, 5, 17. 


super a, 92. 






Vulgar Latin, 114 sqq. 


Syncope, 5, 118. 






Weakening of Vowels (see 


taxsat, 82. 






Vowel-weakening) . 


ted, 50. 








Terehonio, 35. 






X and s, 116. 


ti and ci, 116. 






xs for X, 73. 


^if and cty 116 ; for ss, 


57. 




2/, 94. 


w for (see o) ; and 


in 


Late 




Latin, 115. 






^,94. 



ANNOUNCEMENT. 

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COLLEGE LATIN SERIES. 

UNDER THE GENERAL EDITORSHIP OF PROFESSORS 



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LA TIN, 16 

Appendix to Bennett's Latin Grammar . 

By Professor CHARLES E. Bennett, Cornell University. For uni- 
versity work. i2mo, cloth, 232 pages. Price, 80 cents. 

THE purpose of this book is to give such information regard- 
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experience has shown to be of service to advanced students. 

The subjects treated are the Latin Alphabet, Pronunciation, 
Hidden Quantity, Accent, Orthography, The Latin Sounds, 
Inflections, Adverbs and Prepositions, and Syntax. Of these 
subjects, those of Hidden Quantity, Inflections, and Syntax re- 
ceive special attention ; and the results of recent investigation 
are set forth fully and clearly, but in compact form. 

Professor Edouard Wblfflin, in the Archiv fur Laieinische Lexikographie 
und Grammatik. February, 1896. Auf geringem Raume ist viel wis- 
senswiirdiges zusammengedrangt, und zwar mitpraktischem Geschicke ; 
zwei langere Listen geben die lateinischenWortervon bestrittener Quan- 
titat und Orthographie, wobei die Ansatze von Marx oft berichtigt sind. 
. . . Die deutsche Wissenschaft wird sich nur freuen dass das amerikan- 
ische Schulwesen ein so brauchbares Hilfsmittel gewonnen hat. 

Professor Hermann Osthoff, University of Heidelberg : Steht auf der 
Hohe des heutigen Wissens. 

Professor Harry Thurston Peck, Columbia College, N. Y. : It is no exag- 
geration to say that so compact, helpful, and practical a collection of 
indispensable information cannot be found elsewhere in any language 
whatsoever. Even in Germany, the home of classical enchiridia, nothing 
has yet appeared that is so satisfactory. Professor Bennett seems to 
divine by instinct just what questions arise in the mind of the student, 
and he here answers them in advance in a delightfully lucid and simple 
fashion. . . . Everywhere the best authorities are cited ; and it is certain 
that to many teachers, as well as students, the mere perusal of this little 
manual will open up many new vistas, and will put them in touch with the 
most scholarly doctrine of the day. In fact the book is one that no pro- 
gressive instructor can afford to be without, as it summarizes an immense 
amount of information that is of the utmost practical importance. 



Complete Edition, 



Bennett's Latin Grammar and Appendix in one volume. i2mo, half 
leather, 265 + 232 pages. Price, ^1.25. 



